Author: Jaime

Goducate musicians spent the Christmas period raising funds for others. One event was their “concert for a cause”. Taking part in the concert was also a choir of elementary school students who had been a part of our feeding program. The aim of the concert was to raise funds, half for the relief work that Goducate is doing for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in northern Panay, and half for the orchestra’s upcoming activities.

The benefit concert, which lasted for about two hours, entertained the audience with Christmas carols and popular Filipino songs.

The event, held at the Goducate Music Studio, was attended by over a hundred people and raised PHP 8929 ($200).

Another fund-raising effort was made by those Goducate musicians who are college students on Goducate bursaries. Armed with their voices and musical instruments, they went carolling for 3 nights. They used the PHP 3645 ($85) that they raised to buy gifts for the needy. Some of these gifts of food and fruit were distributed to needy patients at a government hospital, and some to widows attending a Christmas party in a nearby community. The patients responded to the serenading with carols and the gifts with big smiles and some teary eyes.

These fund-raising events indicate that Goducate musicians have embraced the core philosophy of Goducate, which is to help Asians help themselves and then to help others.

Goducate’s tagline is “Helping the needy help themselves”. We also encourage our beneficiaries to help others. Two teachers in the Goducate literacy program in Laguna, Philippines, together with five of their students from the Alternative Learning System (ALS) program, have their own catchphrase: “If you want to help others, you can do it from a small beginning”. In the last week of August, this group started a small feeding project in a rice-farming village in Bay, in Laguna. This project is funded solely by contributions from the teachers and the ALS students. The ALS is a ladderized, modular, non-formal education program in the Philippines for people who, for whatever reason, did not complete their schooling.

Children in this rice-farming village sometimes go without breakfast. Their mothers usually give them only “brunch” because their budgets cannot stretch to two meals. Between 15 and 25 kids with ages ranging from 2-12 attend the feeding sessions that have been held every Saturday. Some of them are children of the ALS students. The feeding sessions are preceded by lessons in writing, drawing, and spelling.

Because of tight budget, the food is simple. It could be aroz caldo (porridge with chicken), or bread and champorado (a sweet chocolate rice pudding). Given their very limited resources, the teachers and ALS students have to commended for starting this project.

Twenty-six pupils from four Goducate Literacy Centers (in Maitim, Tranca, Sitio 74, Sitio Ulik) in Bay, Laguna, along with their teachers and parents, went on an educational tour on Sept 27. The purpose of this tour was to educate the pupils and their parents about the importance of rice, the stages of rice production from land preparation to consumption, and some rice varieties grown in different countries. At the same time it was a chance for the pupils and their parents from different literacy centers to get acquainted with each other.

The first stop was thus the Rice Museum of the International Rice Research Institute in Los Baños, Laguna. The children were completely awed by what they saw. They learnt that there are different varieties of rice and rice-based products. They saw the old tools and implements used by the farmers in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. And they saw exhibits of the different kinds of birds commonly found in the tropical rice fields.

This vist was also the first for the mothers and some of the teachers. Hence, they were as happy and as curious as were their children.

After the visit to the Rice Museum, the group was brought round the University of the Philippines Los Banos campus, with a stop-over at the newly-built Japanese Garden. The trip ended at the Goducate campsite in Bay for some games and for lunch.