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2012-06-152012-06-14

Boys’ workshop at Cambodia Goducate Children’s Home

Last week, two of our directors from Goducate HQ officially opened the boys’ workshop facility at the Goducate Children’s Home in Prey Nob, Cambodia. The ribbon cutting was followed by the planting of 3 mango trees outside the workshop.

Speech by Goducate director Victor Yeo at the official opening ceremony

ribbon cutting by directors Victor Yeo and Leong Lick Tien (with wife Mrs Leong and the Home Administrator Noe)

The official opening was also attended by 9 other Singaporeans and all the children and staff at the Home. The construction of the boys’ workshop facility commenced two months ago with funds from a generous sponsor, and with the completion of its first phase, the older boys at the Home now have the opportunity to be taught useful skills such as automobile repair, electrical installation works, welding, carpentry, etc.

IMG_4279ab — welding (left); repairs on the van (right)

Training has already commenced with one trainer, Ronnie, seen above explaining the various uses of the tools procured for the workshop. Another trainer, Will, will be added to the staff strength at the Home some time in August to help train more boys.

2012-06-08

Goducate trainees finish first module of their course

On May 25 the Goducate Training Center celebrated the completion of the first training module taken by its first batch of full-time trainee community development worker (CDW).

These 33 trainees, from Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia and China, had
undergone a rigorous 2-month program in agriculture, teaching methods, literacy teaching, counseling, etc. Before they took a well-deserved one-week break before returning to finish the remaining 6 months of their course, they presented a Culminating Program to showcase what they had learnt.

The guests included officials from San Miguel town (the town in which GTC is situated), parents of the trainees, and supporters of Goducate.

To me the highlight of their presentation was the ability of the trainees to work across cultures, to produce creative items, and to express themselves articulately. The master of ceremonies for the day was an Indonesian trainee who spoke confidently in English. Having known him before he came to GTC, I was amazed how much had changed in a mere 2 months. The Chinese and Cambodian trainees also comfortably fitted into their English-speaking roles. Filipino trainees spoke in accent-perfect (almost!) Mandarin and Khmer (Cambodian) in preparation for future work in China and Cambodia.

After watching them, I was confident that they had the potential to be effective CDWs — who could enter needy communities to help them to help themselves.

2012-06-052012-06-08

Helping others help themselves begins at Goducate Training Center

Goducate aims to help Asians help themselves because Goducate believes
that its projects must be sustainable ones.

To ensure that this philosophy is entrenched in our culture our main training center, the Goducate Training Center in Iloilo, Philippines (where almost all Goducate’s future workers are trained) is designed to “help itself” and to be self-sustainable.

Besides the usual classrooms, dormitories and “laboratories” of a usual educational institution, GTC is designed with recreational and food and beverage (F&B) facilities to cater to visitors, especially educational tour groups from schools, universities, governmental
bodies and business corporations.

GTC has been designated as a tourism-site by the Municipality of San Miguel. Its cutting-edge agricultural projects and plots showcase modern Asian agriculture. Its agricultural faculty and students lead the edu-groups on interesting and informative tours that teach about modern, scientific, sustainable farming for the future.

After these edu-tours, visitors are invited to enjoy GTC’s recreational facilities and F&B outlets. The revenue raised from the water-park, dipping pool, zip-lines, rock-climbing, horse-riding, fishing and restaurant is used to upgrade and maintain GTC and to provide scholarships for its trainees.

Besides this source of revenue from edu-tours, GTC trainees also work
on their agricultural plots. What they grow not only provides food for themselves, but more importantly teaches them the skills of modern sustainable agriculture—skills that they will share when they go into poor communities to help needy Asians help themselves.