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GoTeens Bukidnon hits its 10,000 student-mark for Student Leadership Program

Ten thousand students have participated in the GoTeens platform in Malaybalay City in Bukidnon Province in Mindanao (the second largest island group in the Philippines), in the year since the Student Leadership Program was introduced in Malaybalay City in September, 2018. GoTeens is a Goducate Philippines platform targeting high-schools, to educate the teenagers on the effects of premarital sex and illegal drug abuse. The platform’s tagline is “building the next generation of leaders”. The idea is to get youth leaders to educate their peers about pressing issues of teenage pregnancy and illegal drug abuse.

The GoTeens Malaybalay City team is composed of volunteers from different sectors, headed by Mr Daniel Asuncion and his wife, Dr. Ruth Asuncion. The milestone reached in Malaybalay City has been one of the long-term goals of Goducate as a whole in its efforts to get the more than 42,000 communities in the Philippines to mobilize more volunteers for the youth movement. Some of the volunteers are housewives, company drivers, doctors, and church leaders who aim to reduce the rising number of teenage pregnancies and illegal drug abusers in the country.

Goducate’s aim is to create movements with its existing platforms among various communities in the different parts of the Philippines. Trainings are offered to partners interested to collaborate in reaching their own communities.

Student Leadership Program in Managok National High School
Student Leadership Program in Bangkud National High School
Student Leadership Program in Can Ayan Integrated School

 

*Our guest writer is Carmela Damaso, a staff member of Goducate Laguna.
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GoBasket Philippines holds first coaching skills enhancement training in Bukidnon, Philippines

GoBasket is a Goducate Philippines program aimed at drawing young people away from illegal drug abuse and other vices. Basketball is the Philippines’ favorite sport, and GoBasket works by creating a movement of basketball leaders happy to organize basketball events. On Dec 3, 2019, Coach Andrian Pagsuguiron, the person in charge of GoBasket Philippines, and Coach Bethtobin Saraza, another GoBasket Philippines coach, went to Barangay Sumpong, Malaybalay City, Province of Bukidnon, to hold that area’s first coaching skills enhancement training. About 40 participants from different barangays (villages) attended the session, which was designed to be sufficient to impart basic basketball skills. The coaching skills enhancement training in December aimed to produce coaches who will conduct basketball clinics to the numerous barangays in Malaybalay City. The coaching skills taught included dribbling, footwork, passing, and shooting.

A basketball clinic followed on Dec 7. Participants were the residents of Barangay Sumpong, Malaybalay City, and the clinic was headed by some of the coaches who were trained in the coaching skills enhancement session.

GoBasket offers further coaching skills enhancement sessions. The next one is planned for Jan 31-Feb 1, and will be held at the Goducate Training Center in Iloilo and conducted by international coaches.

Coaching dribbling skills
Participants practising footwork
*Our guest writer is Carmela Damaso, a Goducate staff member in Iloilo.
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Goducate visits earthquake victims in Mindanao, Philippines

The most recent series of earthquakes that hit the Philippines on Nov 16, 30 and 31 left North Cotabato, a province in the northern part of the Island of Mindanao (the second largest group of islands in the country), in shambles. 

Some of the houses were newly built but none escaped the earthquake

On Dec 5, five Goducate Philippines staff, in partnership with Sultan Kudarat Association, visited Barangay Buenavista in the Municipality of Makilala, in North Cotabato. Barangay Buenavista is one of the 38 barangays (villages) in Makilala. 20,704 families (some 103,520 persons) reside in the Municipality of Makilala, where the earthquakes eroded more than 200 hectares of land.

The visiting group had first to get a clearance pass from the Makilala Incident Management Team before proceeding to the relocation site. The specific relocation site that the group visited was housing about 150 families from Sitios Lapu-Lapu and Rizal. The relocation site is a private property owned by a businessman who generously allowed his rubber plantation to be occupied by those whose houses were destroyed by the earthquake.

The classes have resumed in tents like this in Barangay Buenavida, Makilala, North Cotabato

The local elementary school in Barangay Buenavida was also destroyed by the earthquake, so the teachers and the remaining students resumed classes in makeshift classrooms made of tents in the same relocation site. According to the teachers, only about 120 of the more than 200 pupils have remained. The rest had left North Cotabato out of fear that the earthquake might hit the province once again. 

During the relief operations, lunch was served, and packed goods were given following the master list of the households registered in the relocation site. As a stress-debriefing procedure, the Goducate staff together with the partners from Sultan Kudarat Association facilitated games for the children and adults, separately.

The names were called out for the goods according to the masterlist given by the Makilala Incident Management Team
*Our guest writer is Carmela Damaso, a Goducate staff member in Iloilo.