The Goducate model farm in Laguna is being expanded by another 5000 sq meters. The existing farm has been fully planted with vegetables and there has been a need to expand the farm for some time.
The purpose of this farm is to help our workers to learn how to grow vegetables in small sustainable plots, so that they can then teach needy people to grow vegetables in their own backyard (or frontyard) plots in our Veg@table projects. The food produced on this farm also provides food for the full-time Goducate trainees who are being trained there and who live there.
The Veg@table projects in various poor communities have been slow to take off because of lack of water in these communities in the previous few month. Another limiting factor has been the lack of workers who are trained in this form of agriculture. This expansion will help solve this problem.
Goducate’s philosophy is to “help needy Asians help themselves” by Going and Educating them—and then encouraging them to help others with what they’ve learned. We believe that this is better than just giving them something or some help.
However, there are certain circumstances in which we have to provide help that is not educational or help that they can then use to help others. For example, in emergencies timely help is often more appropriate then education. If a person is starving because of a flood, it’s more appropriate to feed him first before attempting to teach him how to produce more crops from his farm.
In our work with needy communities, we’ve often found that we need to rectify medical and dental problems before we can move on to “go and educate” them how to help themselves, and then help others. In some of the communities that we work in (eg, Sabah) the majority of people have never ever seen a doctor or a dentist. Chronic debilitating illnesses and rotting teeth are part of their lives. Someone with a toothache (without Panadols or Aspirins) is not able to learn anything effectively.
When we first sent in a dental team to Sabah, we ran out of local anesthetic on the first day of our work because hundreds of people came—with many requesting to have all their teeth (rotten or good) pulled out. While the dentists were at work, they realized that many of their patients also had medical and surgical problems that needed urgent treatment, but they lacked the medicines and surgical instruments needed to help them. Future teams will include general surgeons.
We are grateful for a dedicated team of volunteer dentists, doctors, and surgeons from Iloilo, Philippines, who offer their skills regularly to help the needy.
A kind sponsor of Goducate, Kenneth Aw, through his company KSurgical Pte Ltd, has also given us the dental and surgical instruments needed for our work.
Two months ago Jonatan, our livelihood trainer, went to Talahiban to teach the villagers there how to make liquid soap. One of the villagers is now reaping the profits of this training.
Nanay Remy, a widow, used to go to the mountains to collect fallen coconuts, from which she would make copra, the dried meat, or kernel, of the coconut. She used to earn 50-70 pesos ($1.10-1.60) a day doing this. With the liquid soap she is now earning an additional 80-100 pesos a day. This has made it easier for her to support herself and her daughter, Mary Jane, a second-year high-school student and a clarinetist in the Goducate orchestra. Previously there used to be times when Mary Jane could not afford transport to school and had to make the 3 km journey on foot.
Nanay Remy (in white top) making liquid soap
Nanay Remy believes that education for Mary Jane is vital to help them to survive. She was unable to give her older children, who now have their own families, a formal education.
