Guest * – Page 60 – Goducate … Go And Educate!

2012-03-092012-03-09

Goducate starts a sports program

The Goducate Music Program in Laguna, The Philippines, has been very successful in getting Filipino youth off the streets and back to schools and colleges, in instilling in them discipline, and in giving them hope and a new sense of purpose. Many of our music students are also busy training subsequent batches of new students. Some of them are also earning income by performing at functions and by teaching in our new music studio. Five of them have been sent to Singapore and trained by a well-known music school, Wolfgang Violin Studio. One of them is presently being trained to be a teacher at Wolfgang Violin Studio.

Successful as this program is, it reaches only the more musically inclined sector of the population. A large number of youth, especially the males, are not inclined to be musicians. However, most of these are crazy about basketball. The Philippines is indeed a “basketball crazy nation”. Every little village has basketball hoops hanging from lamp-posts, and almost every town has its covered basketball court.

When Goducate saw the potential of using this basketball-mania to further its goal of “helping Asians help themselves”, it appointed a well-known Filipino basketball coach, David “Boycie” Zamar, as its Sports Director. Boycie has played professional basketball in The Philippines, has been trained in the USA, and has coached the Philippines youth team as well as teams in the Middle-East, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. He is one of only 5 FiBA-certified referees in The Philippines.

Boycie shares Goducate’s dream of using sports to teach useful life-skills such as discipline, endurance, team-work, obedience, and fair play. He also aims to see many of these youth get back to school and college—via sports scholarships. After barely a week with us, he managed to get one of the youth into a college sports program.

With the help of a friend who is a certified FiBA referee, he has organized training for referees. This will not only improve the quality of play by reducing the number of on-court fights, but will also provide the referees with a means of earning a living as referees for village games. (Referees are paid 300 pesos/game).

Goducate plans to include in the sports program other livelihood training. For a start the basketballers will also be trained in skills such as welding (in The Philippines TESDA [Technical Education and Skills Development Authority] program) and agriculture (growing moringa as part of sports nutrition education). We are confident that this program will help Asians help themselves.

2012-03-06

Goducate plans expansion of livelihood training in Sabah

Our Sabah Goducate literacy centers have produced over 2000 literate young people in the past 3 years. Many of our graduates have gone on to get jobs as waitresses, shop-assistants, receptionists, etc. These are jobs that were out of reach for them before Goducate came and taught them how to read, write, count, and speak English.

Last year, we started a livelihood center in our main schoolhouse. A sewing machine was bought, and girls were taught how to sew school satchels, pillow-cases, curtains, and a local dress (baju kurong). The project was a success from the very beginning.

photo(17) — "This will sell for 4 Ringgit!"

Today, the center has 3 sewing-machines and an embroidery machine (that can do hemming and embroidery) and produces school-satchels for sale to our students, pillow-cases to the villages we serve, etc.

In a few weeks time, we will start teaching our students hair-cutting and other hair-dressing skills, One of our former teachers, who now works in a beauty saloon, will return as our instructress.

Next on the drawing-board is a welding workshop to teach young boys. This is a skill in high demand in the construction sties and the palm-oil plantations.

2012-03-02

Goducate’s amazing teachers in Sabah

Last week I visited our Goducate Literacy Centers in Sabah. Presently there are 16 centers (possibly 17 by next week) in 16 different villages that provide education to children who have no opportunity to go to school because they are “undocumented aliens” from The Philippines and Indonesia. These are the children of migrant workers who have come to look for work in Sabah’s plantations and construction sites. The “stars” of these literacy centers are the teachers—most of whom are mothers of our students, or former students who have “graduated” from these centers. I am always amazed by their passion to teach, their willingness to learn, their dedication to their students—in spite of the primitive conditions of their “classrooms”, the meagerness of their remuneration, and the constant fear of the local authorities.

One of our former students, T-t, aged 17, is now a teacher. T-t was a student at our center for about 2 years before she was promoted to be an assistant teacher and then a teacher. A few months ago, she was offered a job as a receptionist in an “upmarket” spa because of her poise, her ability to speak a little Mandarin, and her fluent English (a skill she picked up at our center). This was indeed a dream come true for her and a first for the entire village! The starting-pay was RM 500/month – which is what most “undocumented” adults hope to earn.

After 2 months in this cushy dream-job she felt an “emptiness” (in her own words) and decided to return to the village to teach—for RM 100/month! She told me with tears in her eyes: “I just love to teach!”

photo(15) — Mums (seen here at teachers' meeting) make great teachers

T-t exemplifies Goducate’s philosophy of helping Asians help themselves—and who then help others help themselves. We are so proud of our Sabah teachers!