Goducate plans to have 100 learning centers in Sabah by the end of the first quarter of 2012. We now have 17 centers and some 2000 students. How do we decide where to start our next center? Generally we don’t have to go looking. It’s the villagers who seek us out. Jestoni’s story is one example of how keen villagers are to have a Goducate learning center and how Goducate expands in Sabah.
Jestoni used to look with longing and envy at children in school uniforms on their way to school each morning. But like so many others in his village, his family does not have the proper documents that entitle him to a place in the local state school.
One day he heard that a “school” had opened nearby. This Goducate learning center was across the river, 40 minutes away on foot. He begged his mother to enrol him there, but the teacher did not accept him because the class was too full. It took his mother’s friend to let our area coordinator know of Jestoni’s story. Our area coordinator then persuaded the teacher to take him in. However, one afternoon, while walking home, Jestoni was offered Rm50 (USD 16) by a man to enter his van. Jestoni ran home as fast as he could and told his mother what had happened. That was the end of his going to this school.
Then another learning center was opened, again on the other side of the river, but this time Jestoni would have to get there by boat. Really wanting to learn, he went without telling his mother. He and some other boys rowed a “sampan” (a small rowing boat) to look for the school. They found it and were very happy to be able to attend classes that day. But on the way back, the sampan capsized.
His mother was very alarmed. Seeing her son’s determination to attend school, she asked that we start a learning center in her house. Now Jestoni and his younger siblings and other children in their community have a learning center right in the midst of their simple dwellings.