Author: Leo

On Oct 26, Goducate Laguna, together with a partner group, held a medical mission at the Goducate Training Center in Laguna. The partner group provided the medical team of 5 doctors, 2 nurses, and 8 medical assistants. Goducate Laguna staff, Goducate scholars, and members of the Provincial Police Department helped the medical team serve the 206 people who turned up for medical help.

Goducate scholars are college students from the Goducate music program who get financial help from Goducate for their studies because they come from very-low-income families. They actively help in Goducate’s community work, which they find meaningful, and which we hope will inculcate in them the desire to continue to serve the needy. In the medical area, they have helped with previous medical missions, and also visit hospitals to bring cheer to inpatients.

For this 5-hour event, 2 were assigned to the vital-signs section, 5 to the counselling area, 5 to the medical consultation area, 5 to the eye clinic, and 5 to the pharmacy. The others served as general helpers.

 

Aldin is a Goducate Scholar hoping to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Education in March next year from the Laguna State Polytechnic University.

Goducate scholars are students in the Goducate music program in Laguna, Philippines, whose family income falls below the provincial minimum wage and who need help with their with their university fees. Aldin’s story is one of remarkable progress in learning music, of how that has helped him continue his university education, and of how he is now contributing substantially to the music program.

When Aldin’s father became bedridden in 2009, his mother stopped working abroad as a domestic helper to take care of her husband. Aldin, being the elder of 2 children, ended up as the family’s main breadwinner.

He entered college in 2011 but a year later wanted to stop because of financial difficulties. Fortunately he met a Goducate Scholar, learnt of the Goducate scholarship scheme, and became interested in learning to play the violin. He began to learn and soon was given a violin, one of a batch of musical instruments donated by Goducate’s main corporate sponsor, MHC Asia, in 2012. He was a fast learner, and is now able to play also the viola, saxophone, and clarinet. Later he was granted a Goducate scholarship. His ability to play so many instruments also helped him join his university’s brass band and through that to earn a tuition grant from the university.

To help support his family and to earn some pocket money, Aldin uses his free time to teach music and to play for events such as birthdays, weddings, and coming-of-age parties. Also, in keeping with Goducate’s encouragement for its beneficiaries to help others, he gives free viola lessons to 6 students in the Goducate Orchestra who also received instruments donated by MHC Asia.

In March this year, 7 out of 41 Goducate scholars in the 2014-15 batch graduated from various universities in the Philippines. This Goducate Scholarship Program in Laguna, sponsored by a Goducate supporter, pays for the tuition fees of students from very low income families who are in the Goducate music program. In return the scholar helps in the music program as well as in Goducate community programs.

One of these graduates was Kimberly Cabalfin, who was orphaned at age 10. She lives with her aunts and grandmother, and with their help she finished her high-school education but they could not support her through college. Kimberly plays the violin and qualified for a Goducate scholarship. As a Goducate scholar she helped children to play the recorder.

Kimberly graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary Education, with a major in Technology and Livelihood Education (TLE), from Laguna State Polytechnic University in Los Banos. She was a Goducate scholar throughout her 4 years in college.

She is now a TLE teacher in Calamba, Laguna, teaching grade 8-10 students. With this job she is able to help her aunts and grandmother with household expenses and to give her grandmother a monthly allowance.

Kimberly also continues to help Goducate whenever we have a youth camp and whenever the music department has an event.

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