Guest * – Page 40 – Goducate … Go And Educate!

2014-04-082018-09-23

ConnecTayo kicks off Goducate Cup basketball tournament in Singapore

ConnecTayo, derived from a combination of English and Tagalog words to mean “Let’s Connect”, is a Goducate project to help Filipino immigrants in Singapore. Towards the end of last year, we conducted a livelihood-training program for them. 22 people completed the course and were certified as basketball referees.

On March 23 this year, ConnecTayo in partnership with FilOrg Singapore, kicked off the Goducate Cup Basketball League, which is being held at Jurong West Secondary School. 21 teams have joined the league. There is a height limit for players of 5’10’’, to keep the teams as balanced as possible and thus to make the games more exciting. The games are being held every weekend and will run for the next 6 months. Some of those who completed the basketball referee training program last year are officiating at this league.

We thank MHC Asia for being the main sponsor for the event. MHC Asia also provided free medical check-ups for players and team supporters on the opening day.

ConnecTayo programs are intended to enhance Filipino immigrants’ experience of living in Singapore. We believe that Filipinos who are well connected among themselves will be able to integrate well with the locals and even to contribute to the local community.

Flyer for the Goducate Cup basketball league

Guest writer Willy, Staff at GLCC

2014-04-042014-04-08

Goducate teachers impress the Vietnamese

Last September Goducate sent 4 of its English teachers to Danang, Vietnam, to strengthen the faculty of our Vietnamese partners, iCan Language Center.

The Vietnamese government is keen to make Vietnam an English-speaking nation by 2020 and has set aside large sums of money to achieve this goal. The biggest bottle-neck in achieving this goal is the lack of teachers of English. The Vietnamese authorities were focusing on recruiting English teachers from western countries. However, many western teachers find the working conditions and salaries in Vietnam to be sub-par. So when I met with the authorities to suggest to them the possibility of sending Goducate-trained Filipino teachers, I was met with much skepticism. Eventually I offered to send a small team of our Filipino English
teachers for a trial period.

Since then our team of 4 Filipinas have been impressing the Vietnamese with their command of the English language, their lively teaching style, and more importantly their love and care for their students. Top-end hotels that were reluctant to accept our teachers to help their staff learn English were “converted” almost immediately after seeing our teachers in action. The personnel manager of one such hotel said, “I didn’t realize that Filipinos can be such good English teachers. Please don’t send us any more Western teachers!”

Recently, one of our teachers, Merianne, was awarded a “Top Employee” award in a 5-star hotel at which room rates start at USD $500/night. I spoke to the personnel manager and she said, “Merianne is excellent. We all love her”. I sat in at one of Merianne’s classes and watched her lively and engaging teaching session and felt so proud of her.

On another occasion I was having coffee with some of our teachers at a road-side cafe near iCan Language Center when a student joined us. I watched this Vietnamese student sharing her “deepest secrets” with our teacher and realized that our teachers had built very close teacher-student relationships. Our teacher was no more just a teacher but a close friend and advisor.

We anticipate more requests for Goducate teachers in Vietnam in the near future. Goducate hopes to help Vietnamese help themselves by teaching them English.

2014-03-112014-06-09

Goducate offers educational tours at Goducate Training Center

Goducate’s aim is to help the needy help themselves. So it follows that Goducate should help itself—ie, by aiming for self-sufficiency. Thus the Goducate Training Center (GTC) in Iloilo has not only facilities for training purposes but also holiday accommodation and recreational facilities that could be let out to the public. The recreational facilities include a swimming pool, a fishing pond, a zipline, a rock-climbing wall, and a fish spa, as well as many hectares of land for walks and games.

One group that was attracted by the facilities at the GTC was schools. Initially the schools conducted their own program, paying the entrance fee and the fee for whatever facilities they used. However, from June 2013, we started to market educational tours at PhP 150 ($3.35) per head for 30-45 min talks on various aspects of agriculture and farming that Goducate trainees are taught. The topics covered include basic botany, vermiculture, hydroponics, the rice-fish model of rearing fish in rice fields, container gardening, and characteristics of farm animals. The talks are geared for different age groups. They are interactive, with students being invited to use their senses and to participate in accompanying activities. For example, they can taste the Stevia leaf (a sweetener or sugar substitute), spray vermitea (a fertilizer made from worm castings), pot up plants, or feed animals. Included in the educational tour package is a GTC souvenir of either a potted plant or a key chain.

75% of the schools visiting GTC are kindergartens and day-care centers and 25% are elementary or high schools. In the first 2 months of this year 7 elementary or high schools, and 20 groups of kindergartens and day-care centers visited GTC. One of the groups consisted of 24 day-care centers, with a total of 750 pupils. Another very recent tour catered for a mixed group of 150 parents and students ranging in age from 6-40. Of the 27 lots of visitors, 11 took up the educational package and the rest conducted their own program.

Handling African night crawlers used for making compost

After mixing soil and pottting up plants