Every July is Nutrition Month in the Philippines. The 4 Goducate Literacy Centers in Laguna jointly held a Nutrition Day event at the Goducate Training Center. The theme for this year’s Nutrition Month was Timbang iwasto sa tamang nutrisyon at ehersisyo (Proper weight through right nutrition and exercise). It was chosen to emphasize the problem of obesity among Filipinos.
The program began with a parade of the children wearing their costumes of different vegetables. Then Mrs. Liza Espanola, one of the teachers, shared with the parents how children achieve their correct weight through proper nutrition and proper physical exercises.
The literacy centers in Puy-puy and Mabacan contributed to the program by singing “Bahay Kubo” (a Filipino children’s folk song about various vegetable plants around a nipa hut), and the Sta.Cruz and Lalao centers danced to the song of “Makulay ang buhay sa sinabawang (colorful life with vegetable soup).
Parade in vegetables costumesSinging Bahay KuboDance item
Part of Goducate’s literacy program in Laguna, Philippines, is to help people through the Philippines Department of Education’s Alternative Learning System (ALS). The ALS allows those who have not completed their conventional schooling to continue their education. Those who pass the secondary level ALS examination can qualify for tertiary education.
In 2014 Goducate Laguna had 8 students preparing for the ALS, 6 at secondary and 2 at elementary level. From June 2014, they met twice a week for 4 hours each time, under the instruction of Mechie Decinal, a Goducate volunteer who had just qualified as a certified ALS instruction manager.
The students took their examinations in December. The results were announced in June this year. 2 of our students passed, both at secondary level. They were 2 of the 27 in the town of Bay who passed, out of 102 who took the examination at secondary level. In the 2013 exams, Goducate candidates also did relatively well—4 of the 19 successful candidates in Bay were Goducate students (see Feb 28, 2014 blog).
One of the successful candidates was Jelmar Lobusto, aged 25, who had been brought up in an orphanage and had completed his secondary schooling there, but the academy at the orphanage was not one accredited by the Philippines Department of Education.
The other successful candidate this year was Bernardo Endonila, aged 42, who had to drop out of school at 15 to help his parents earn a living for the family. He has 5 children (2 of whom are in the Goducate music program), and drives a rented jeepney. A jeepney is a highly decorated jeep-like vehicle used as a form of public transport in the Philippines.
Both these men are planning to take courses held by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). Goducate will continue to assist them in fulfilling their dreams.
Jelmar (in white at back) and Bernardo (in blue in foreground) during tutorialAt graduation ceremonyBernard, Jelmar, and Mechie
Goducate in Laguna has been helping the community through basketball. This game not only helps to keep kids off the streets but also to help them learn values such as discipline, teamwork, and leadership. For those who train to be basketball referees and table officials, the game provides a source of income. We have been holding basketball training sessions every Saturday for some 60 children aged 5-16. We also started a barangay (village) league which ran for 2 years till we ran out of funds this year.
Last month we extended our sports program to our Philippine National Police (PNP), in particular to the Laguna Provincial Public Safety Company (LPPSC).
On July 29 we held a seminar and training session for referees and coaches. The seminar was led by Goducate Sports Coordinator David ‘Boycie’ Zaman, an assistant coach for the San Miguel branch of the Philippine Basketball Association, which is champion of this year’s National League.
The program started with a word of encouragement by coach Boycie, who described how basketball had helped him to be the person he is today, able to influence the lives of young men who desire to become successful in basketball. He went on to encourage our men in uniform to reach out to youth through sports, through the PNP public community relations (PCR) program. He explained how getting youth to play basketball can draw them away from drug addiction, one of the largest probems in the Philippines now.
I had thought that only our barangay league had difficulty finding qualified officials, but it turns out that even the PNP has the same problem. To find a solution to this problem, further training session were held on Aug 5 and Aug 10.
Our long-term goal now is to create a group or organization of coaches, referees and table officials with integrity. We will draw them from different social levels in the community and give them a chance to earn some income from this work.
This month we plan to let our police trainees officiate in an actual basketball league event. We also hope to bring the same training to other police stations.
Coach Boycie addressing the traineesParticipants at the training session
