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More volunteers and supporters for Goducate!

Last Saturday, 50 Indians visited the Goducate office to find out more about it.

This group of men had earlier heard about Goducate from their leader who had tried to explain to them about it aims and projects. We have discovered that, even after explanation, many people do not really understand what Goducate is and what it does.

I think this is because Goducate is not your typical non-profit organization. Not too many Asia-wide organizations focus on education as a tool to help poor Asians help themselves. Most Asia-wide charity organizations are usually more into disaster relief work (eg. earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons or cyclones). And, on the other hand, charitable educational organizations are usually more local, rather than Asia-wide, in their scope.

After spending almost three hours at Goducate office, I believe they left with a far better understanding of what it is and what it does. In fact, before they left the office, these fifty men committed to support and help Goducate!

I hope that many other groups/organizations will visit us and, then like our Indian friends, eventually be a part of the Goducate “team.”

As a new non-profit organization, Goducate needs many supporters and volunteers.

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Goducate Project Leaders’ Training

Preparations for the first Goducate Project Leaders’ Training are going well. A generous donation from a Goducate supporter this week provided us with the means to invite a few more of our project leaders to join us. For some it will be their first time leaving their home country!

A good program has been lined up for the 40 to 50 delegates that will be attending. Dr Low Lee Yong a Singaporean doctor whose health-care corporation is a Goducate corporate sponsor and who is an IT expert will be teaching us the importance of the internet, blogging and YouTubing. We want all our project leaders to be able to effectively share what they are doing with our other staff and with the world.

Dr Leslie Tay another Singaporean doctor who is also Singapore’s most well-known food blogger will be teaching us how to write interesting blogs and take interesting photos. Yet another Singaporean doctor, Dr Chan Tat Hon, who once was the number two person in the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board and who is now running a travel organization called Take-me-to-asia will teach us the importance of volun-tourism.

Other speakers who are more publicity-shy will teach us about the needy of Asia, creativity in non-profit work, cross-cultural communications, understanding and obeying foreign laws, etc. The first session begins on Monday night (Jan 18) and ends on Friday night (Jan 22) with a Goducate Night – where Goducate supporters get a chance to meet and mingle with our project leaders. From Tuesday on, training begins at 9am and lasts till 9pm (with the usual breaks for snacks and meals). Though the program is tailored for project leaders, all Goducate supporters are welcome to join the training sessions.

If you are interested to join the training, please email your interest to me.

As Goducate operates on a shoe-string budget our foreign delegates will be housed in homes of our friends and supporters. If you will like to help us house a delegate/delegates, please also email me. Your hospitality will be a great help to Goducate and a great encouragement to our field workers.

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Computers – the key to the world in the hand of Asians

Computers are so much a part of our lives that we can hardly imagine living without one. But for the vast majority of Asians owning a computer is only a dream. This is a tragedy because the ability to “handle” a computer is the key to the world and a means to get a job – even an entry level job such as a sales-girl, receptionist. Even poor Asians know this but they just do not have the means to learn to use a computer or even touch one.

Computer class for Telugu migrant workers in Singapore
Computer class for Telugu migrant workers in Singapore

Goducate aims to help poor Asians learn computer skills. We have already started Goducate computer learning centers in Indonesia and Singapore (for migrant workers). At first, we employed computer teachers to teach the subject. This pilot project was successful but we could not expand our work to other centers because of the shortage of trained computer teachers. When we faced this dilemma, a Goducate volunteer offered to develop a computer-based learning system for us. He had worked in a similar center in UK for migrants and used his expertise and experience to develop a system that is suitable for Indonesia (which can quite easily be modified for other Asian countries). With this computer-based learning system students of all different ability levels can be trained – and learn at their own speed. Only one facilitator will be required to help out when the students encounter problems.

Computer class at the Goducate Learning Center in Batam Indonesia
Computer class at the Goducate Learning Center in Batam Indonesia

It is a joy just to watch simple folks “unlock” the potential of the computer and enter a whole new world. All it takes is for people to collect the unwanted computers of affluent countries and install the right learning software (which we have developed) in them and we have a Goducate computer center! Presently, we have developed/put together software to teach English and computer skills. In the near future, we hope to develop/put together other learning programs – the skies the limit when the computer “door” is unlocked.

Goducate hopes to help poor Asians help themselves by opening a whole wide world to them. These dear people do not need to watch the world go by but can join the world! Let’s help put the future in their hands!