Author: Leo

Sandy is a volunteer at our model farm in Laguna. He goes round collecting leftover vegetables for our vermicomposting project. Vermicomposting is the use of a worm called the African night crawler to produce compost. The worm eats waste material and churns out good compost. At our model farm we are are trying out different combinations of waste material to find out what produces the best compost.

Sandy has started his own backyard vegetable garden. Among the vegetables he is growing are bittergourds, sweet peppers, eggplants, and ladies’ fingers. The plan that he has been following is to plant several kinds of vegetables simultaneously but in small quantities. Then the planting is repeated roughly every month, so that there is a continuous harvest of each kind of vegetable.

Sandy works in the Talahiban area. He will soon be teaching the villagers there how to start their own backyard vegetable gardens using this plan.

Goducate hopes that the residents of Talahiban will soon be able to put their own veg@table.

When Manuel was 14 he got into the wrong company. He started to gamble, drink alcohol, and take illegal drugs, and when he ran out of money he and his friends stole electrical wires from houses and substations. He was caught and charged several times for fighting on the streets and in school. As a result he had to leave school.

But he realized his wrongdoing and wanted to finish his studies. When he heard about out Alternative Learning System (ALS) programme, he joyfully enrolled. This ALS, developed by the Philippines Ministry of Education, enables children who cannot attend regular school to study on their own and at their own pace. Goducate offers ALS tutorials.

Manuel, now aged 21, has taken the final ALS high-school exam, which will qualify him to enter college. He will know the results in February.

His interest in music and his musical skills may influence his as yet undetermined future plans. He plays the keyboard for the Goducate orchestra and teaches in our music program.

On Dec 16, 2010, our town of Bay had an orchestra playing in public for the first time—-and the orchestra was the Goducate orchestra! We were invited by the mayor to play Christmas carols for the town.

Our musicians and their parents were excited but also worried. Since it was the first time an orchestra was playing in the town, we did not know how many people would turn up. About 300 people came to enjoy the music.

Not only did our orchestra perform. So did 34 selected students from those attending our music and feeding programme in neighbouring villages; they formed a band playing the recorder. Most of these students had started to learn to play the recorder only about a month ago. Denver, who accompanied the recorder band on the keyboard, is only 10 years old.

After the mayor’s speech I was invited to introduce the orchestra and to explain why we started music tutorials. At the end of the concert, we were given a token of appreciation. Unexpectedly, the mayor also announced that he would commit 5000 pesos (USD 112) to our orchestra, and he invited us to play again on Sat Dec 18. In addition, one of the town councillors promised to donate uniforms for our recorder players because she noticed that they were wearing their own school uniforms. We plan to use the 5000 pesos from the mayor to get uniforms for the members of our orchestra.

The concert scheduled for Dec 18 did not materialize because of the rain. We took shelter in the town hall until 8 pm, taking photographs with Santa Claus. Later we took the children sightseeing around the town, which they enjoyed very much.