Earlier this month, Goducate Children’s Home, Cambodia, welcomed 5 new children into the “family”. These children, Nat, Lynn, Kanya, Mon and Nia, come from Battambang, a 12-hour drive away from the Home. They come from very poor homes and have received little education. They came to the Home in hope of a better education and a better life in the future.
The new children were taken for medical check-ups upon arriving at the home to make sure that they are healthy. They are looking forward to joining the rest of the children and to starting school very soon. The children at the Home were excited in having a new “brother” and several “sisters” and have welcomed them warmly. They are getting along very well and enjoy playing with each other. They new children have already even begun to help out with chores around the Home.
We are excited to see the new children grow and learn and are very glad that they are now part of the Goducate family.
Kanya enjoying breakfastChildren being welcomed at the Home
Last year Timothy and Nathan, two boys from the Goducate Children’s Home in Cambodia, spent 8 months at the Goducate Training Centre in Iloilo, Philippines, training to be community development workers. They returned at the end of the year, and are now helping as staff.
Among other things, they were taught agriculture and how to be effective in reaching out to the poor communities. Timothy is now engaged in the agricultural projects around the Home, such as aquaponics (growing crop and fish together in a re-circulating system) and vermiculture (worm farming).
Nathan is being trained in skills such as welding and electrical work and his duties are mainly connected with the boys’ workshop in the Home, and both he and Timothy are currently working on constructing the foundation of a girls’ workshop.
Both the boys also go into the community every Thursday to teach children English through story-telling and simple songs. There are also plans for further literacy work in the community later this year.
Timothy and Nathan have grown in many ways through their training at the Goducate Training Center. The two boys are setting an example for the other children at the Home and giving them hope that they too have a future to look forward to.
Timothy teaching children in the communityTimothy and Nathan doing construction work
Recently, four members of Goducate’s staff in China were sent to Goducate Training Center (GTC) in Philippines to be trained for 6 weeks. At Goducate, we believe that we should equip our workers with the best training so that they will be prepared for and be effective in their respective fields. We felt that the best way for the Chinese members of staff to do this was to be submerged in GTC culture.
Over the 6 weeks, the Chinese team worked on improving their English. Some of them spoke little English at the start, but by the end of their stay they were confident speaking English. The Chinese team also shared their skills with the other trainees in GTC. They taught Mandarin to the other trainees at night and even held a dumpling- making session, teaching the trainees more about Chinese culture and cuisine. The Chinese team attended a few classes and discussions on how to organise activities and camps for university students. More importantly, they had the opportunity to practise what they had learned by conducting games and activities for the children in the community and during the English camp that was held in GTC.
During their stay in GTC, the Chinese team were able to spend time with the local people, to learn how to be cross-cultural and to interact with people from different cultures. We believe that there is a need to be global, and this was beneficial to them because China is growing so fast and there will be many foreign students going to China to study and many students going out of China into different countries. The team went into university campuses and were able to spend time with the students, sharing about their culture and learning about another culture. They also had the chance to spend time with families in the community, visiting homes surrounding GTC, learning the needs of the people there, and sharing part of their lives with the locals.
The trip has been very beneficial to the Chinese team. They have returned to China and have already started planning activities and camps, excited to apply what they have learned. We are looking forward to sending more of our workers from China to be trained in GTC in the near future.
Participating in community activityTalking about dumplings in Chinese cultureMaking dumplings
