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2012-10-302012-11-14

Goducate Training Center trainees help neighboring communities

Goducate Training Center is situated among poor rural communities in the municipality of San Miguel, Iloilo.

When we first started construction of the Goducate Training center two years ago, the area had been hit by a long drought and most of the farm land surrounding the center was barren and uncultivated. As we developed the 11 hectares of land, we discovered that there were 5 springs in our land. So one of the first structures that we constructed on the land was an impounding pond to provide water for our crops and for our neighbors’ fields.

Since the construction of the impounding lake, we have been providing water for all our own rice-fields and vegetable gardens, and supplying water to our neighbors’ rice-fields. The land in and around Goducate Training Center is now a beautiful green “oasis” even in the dry season.

Goducate trainees on their way to help our neighbors help themselves

photo(1) — Goducate turns a desert into an oasis

Goducate Training Center also provides employment for the communities around us. Most of our construction workers and support staff are from the neighboring communities. More important than the employment opportunities provided, is the training that is provided as they work at the center. Promising workers are identified for further training and employment in Goducate Training Center.

Goducate Training Center trainees also spend about half of their training to be community development workers in practical work, most of which is done in the neighboring communities. Daily our trainees go out to these communities to teach literacy, lifeskills, public health, agriculture, etc.

Before our community development workers graduate in December and are sent away to other poor communities, they must first help our neighbors to help themselves.

For booking inquiries please contact our booking officerat 09225506199

2012-10-262012-10-26

Goducate Training Center prepares for 2013

This year’s trainees at Goducate Training Center in Iloilo, Philippines, will be graduating in December. There are almost 50 of them who would have finished their 6-month training by Dec 14.

About 20 of them will be serving as community development workers in China, Indonesia, and Cambodia. Another 5 of them will join Goducate Training Center as staff. And the rest will return to serve in their communities in different parts of the Philippines.

In 2013, Goducate Training Center will be taking in 2 batches of students. The first batch will be trained from January to May to be teachers of English. The will undergo courses such as TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), accent neutralization, counselling, community work, cross-cultural studies, and mentoring. After completing their training, they will be sent to needy communities in other Asian countries to serve as English teachers.

The second batch of trainees will be trained from June to December to be community development workers. In addition to the training that the English teachers will receive, they will receive training in agriculture. Since many of the communities that they will serve are backward rural communities struggling to feed themselves, an understanding of agriculture is vital.

To prepare for 2013, Goducate Training Center has built additional dormitories and a mess-hall. The ladies’ dormitory will be able to house about 70 trainees and the men’s dormitory about 35. The mess-hall will seat about 70 trainees for meals.

As Goducate’s work expands, the demand for English teachers and community development workers continues to grow. Goducate Training Center must continue to produce enough workers to help needy Asians help themselves.

2012-10-232012-10-23

Leadership Training at Goducate Training Center

Last week Goducate Training Center (GTC) held its twice-yearly Leadership Training for young people interested in learning to serve their communities.

80 young people from the Visayas (the “central” part of the Philippine islands) attended the sessions on topics such as “The Leader and the World”, “The Mission of the Leader”, and “The Leader under conflict.” The most interesting and beneficial part of their training is their daily practical sessions serving in the communities around Goducate Training Center. This gives them a real taste of the joys and struggles of community service.

It is our hope that after these 5 days of training, all the participants will be able to serve their communities more effectively, and that some of them will be led to consider being full-time community development workers (CDWs) and enroll for the full-time 6-month CDW course at the Goducate Training Center.

We need to train more CDWs to help Asians help themselves.