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Resident from Goducate Children’s Home in Cambodia enters fashion academy

Sarah Kong, the first girl to be admitted to the Goducate Children’s Home in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, about 13 years ago, started a course at the MaPa Fashion Design Academy in Phnom Penh this week.

Sarah during her entrance exam at the Academy, an assessment if she knows her way with the sewing machines

Sarah, the youngest of 7 siblings, lost her father at a very young age. Growing up in one of the villages of Sihanoukville, she helped her mother to sell food on the streets. The family came to the attention of a staff member of the Home through a community outreach. Sarah and an elder brother were taken into the Home and attended the school based at the Home. Their mother was invited to serve as a cook at the Home. The older siblings had by then become independent.

Sarah has taken part in the various activities in the Home and has made special contributions to some of them. She was taught by some visitors to the Home how to play the violin, and not only became part of the Home’s mini-orchestra, but also taught the younger members of the Home how to play the violin.  She has also helped in many of the Home’s community outreaches, especially in the English Literacy Program, where she served as interpreter, as well as teacher to the younger kids. 

Sarah helping the Home with community outreach by teaching kids

Through the school she learnt about various professions, and she also met professionals from different fields who visited the school. However, her choice of career was determined by her strength in art. When she learnt the basics of sewing and dressmaking in one of the technical classes offered at the Home, she began to sketch dress designs in her free time. She also mended clothes for the younger children in the Home.

Sarah sketching during her free time in the Home

Sarah started her course on April 22. Her dream of setting up her own fashion academy and her own clothes line should motivate her to work hard and excel in her course.       

*Our guest writer is Shelia O. Benosa, a teacher at the Home’s school.

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Goducate’s Go Basket Philippines Program Helps in “Bola Hindi Droga”

Go Basket Philippines is a Goducate program in the Philippines that seeks to draw youths away from undesirable influences. Dabbling in illegal drugs is one of such influences. Go Basket Philippines thus helps the Philippines government’s efforts to promote sports among youths as a means of eradicating drug addiction. The government’s tagline for its efforts is “Bola Hindi Droga”, which literally translates to “Ball not Drugs”.

Go Basket Philippines has been building partnerships with different barangays (villages), Sangguniang Kabataan (Youth Council) and Barangay Captains. It has been conducting free basketball clinics in the barangays, at which participants are taught not only basketball but also good values such as discipline, teamwork, punctuality, etc. Some participants are also trained to be coaches.

Recently, Go Basket Philippines ran two basketball tournaments. The first, a knockout tournament, held on Feb 2-3, was a 3×3 Challenge. The 24 participating teams came from different municipalities of the province of Iloilo. The 3×3 format of basketball is a much trimmed version of the traditional game, with 3 players on each side, and the game is played on half a court, with a ball that is different from the traditional ball, and with its own rules.

Rule briefing for basketball 3×3

On Feb 9, Go Basket Philippines ran a league, with games played according to the traditional format. 8 teams took part.

Orientation for basketball league

Both tournaments enabled players, who had received training from Go Basket Philippines, to meet others who had also received such training. Some of the teams that took part had been formed by those who had been trained by Go Basket Philippines to be coaches. This is an example of how Goducate likes its programs to work—whereby those who have been trained by Goducate go on to train others.

*Our guest writer is Carmela Damaso, a staff member at the Goducate Training Center in Iloilo.
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Youths in Philippines undergo leadership training in Ultimate Youth Camp

Eighty-six youths aged 10-19 took part in the Ultimate Youth Camp held at the Goducate Training Center in Iloilo from May 17-19. The purpose of the Ultimate Youth Camp is to train youths in leadership skills.

Some of the campers came from Iloilo Province, some from Guimaras, an island province across the water from Iloilo City, and some from Bacolod, a city on the huge island of Negros, also across the water from Iloilo City. They could register in cash or in kind, in the form of vegetables, meat, or other consumable goods available to them in their community.

On the last day of the camp, 17-year-old Wilhelm Richard Gonzaga stood in front of the other campers reading out the poem he had written about how thankful he was for what he had learned from the camp. All the other testimonials given that day included expressions of sadness about having to bid goodbye to their newfound friends.

Helping the staff who ran and taught at the camp were 7 trained youth leaders and 38 counselors. The counselors, some of whom were the current batch of trainees at Goducate Training Center, had first attended a Camp Counselor’s Training course. Every counsellor was assigned some campers, with whom they spent most of their time together.

Guest writer: Carmela Damaso, Trainee GTC Iloilo