Vi – Page 6 – Goducate … Go And Educate!

2014-10-102014-10-15

Goducate musicians from Philippines perform at sponsor’s anniversary dinner in Singapore

Four Goducate musicians from Laguna, Philippines, had the wonderful experience of being flown to Singapore to perform for an audience of 900 people. The occasion was the 20th anniversary of MHC Ltd, a loyal and generous Goducate sponsor.

MHC, a third-party administrator that connects general practitioners, human-resource departments, and medical insurers, has adopted Goducate as its corporate social responsibility. For its 20th anniversary dinner, it decided to bring the four musicians to provide some of the entertainment. MHC also invited a team of nine Filipino Goducate teachers serving in Indonesia to sing at the dinner.

The Goducate music program in Laguna started as a means of attracting street-kids back to school, but it took off so well that the students were soon leaning other instruments. There are now over 200 people in the program, which includes a senior and junior orchestra. The program caught the eye of Channel News Asia, which in 2011 produced a 2-part feature on the orchestra in its Once Upon A Village series.

The music program now has a Singapore-based director, who will be going over periodically to Laguna to conduct music camps. While the musicians were here, apart from rehearsals for the anniversary dinner, they also received special music lessons.

In Laguna the musicians play at various events, and some give music lessons. We hope that the experience they gained in Singapore will encourage them to seek even more performing engagements back home, thus fulfilling Goducate’s aim of helping needy Asians help themselves.

Laguna musicians (seated) performing at MHC dinner, with Dr Ben Kwan

Laguna musicians with Goducate supervisors for Laguna

7 of the Goducate teachers from Indonesia who sang at the dinner, together with Goducate founder Paul Choo

2014-09-192014-09-26

Happy Happy English introduced in third foreign workers’ dormitory in Singapore

In January this year Goducate started to teach English in a foreign workers’ dormitory in Singapore. The majority of blue-collar foreign workers live in huge dormitories, each housing several thousand workers. These dormitories are generally in isolated areas, away from where the locals live. There are over 40 such dormitories in Singapore.

The program is called Happy Happy English. It is aimed at teaching the workers functional English and giving them the confidence to speak it, but importantly it is also intended to make them feel welcome and happy. They come without their families and generally burdened by huge debts due to the fees they have to pay their agents to find work for them here. Over here, not only do they live in out-of-the-way places, but their long hours of work and low wages also add to giving them little chance of moving about much and getting to know the locals. From the feedback we have received, it is the friendliness they have experienced that they value most about Happy Happy English.

Late last month, Goducate introduced the program into a third dormitory. We began with two stage shows to give them an idea of how fun-filled the classes could be, followed by an orientation class before lessons proper.

We hope that this program will continue to make their lives better and happier.

Group activity during orientation session

2014-09-052014-09-26

Goducate extends Typhoon Haiyan relief work to Leyte

Typhoon Haiyan (local name Yolanda) was one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded. When it struck the Philippines in November last year, Goducate decided to focus its help on North Panay, an area devastated by the typhoon that was closest to the Goducate Training Center in Iloilo. After distributing immediate relief supplies and providing water purification systems, Goducate decided to focus on rehabilitating schools. Those that had lost roofs were given a tarpaulin covering. For buildings that were too unstable to be re-roofed, Goducate provided “tent schools”. In addition, Goducate’s community development workers helped in remedial classes, and organized seminars and workshops for parents on backyard farming, public health and nutrition, and livelihood projects.

By May, Goducate had rehabilitated 55 schools, enabling an estimated 10,000 students to study in “normal” classes (many classrooms were used by more than one class).
It was then that Goducate decided to extend its help to Leyte, part of the area worst hit by Typhoon Haiyan, and north of Tacloban where most of the help from international agencies was concentrated. Here Goducate has decided to concentrate on community work.
After the distribution of relief goods such as medicines and school supplies, the Goducate team started to visit various communities assessing needs and addressing them. Programs introduced have included awareness of the nutritional value of moringa (which most people already have growing in their backyard), preventive health, and agricultural ones such as vermiculture, container gardening, and backyard gardening. In addition, the community health workers help in schools where needed, for example, by holding English corners. The programs have been very popular. For example, a lecture on moringa awareness is usually followed by a request to do more. And in one high school, almost 90% of the 300 students come for the English corners.

Some of our programs scheduled for July had to be postponed because of Typhoon Rammasun (local name Glenda), which wreaked quite some damage to Goducate in Laguna, and Typhoon Matmo (local name Henry), but work has resumed and is being extended in the area.

Parents attending a moringa awareness session — Students attending an English Corner

Preparation of a FAITH garden. (Food Always In The Home is a project introduced by Care Channels, a non-profit organization).

Students attending an English Corner — Parents attending a moringa awareness session