Category: Cambodia

The children at the Goducate Children’s Home learn much more than the usual school academic subjects. All help out with looking after the plants (fruit, vegetable and flowering) and animals (chickens, pigs, fish) at the Home, while the boys learn livelihood skills such as carpentry, motor-vehicle repairs and welding, and the girls have lessons in baking and sewing. For some skills, such as playing the violin, the children get lessons from visitors.

There is no art teacher at the Home, but the children were fortunate to have had a few art lessons recently from a visitor. Josephine Mendez spent a couple of days holding art classes at the Home teaching them some basics on shading and color coordination. The children each produced two drawings, one in pencil and one in color, which were judged by a panel consisting of an architect and a graphic designer. The best in each category are now on display in the Home’s learning center.

Samuel is a resident at the Goducate Children’s Home in Cambodia, who recently spent 8 months in the Philippines. Here he tells us about his life there.

“The reason I was sent to Philippines is to experience the school and a life outside the Home. I was expecting that life there is not really hard, but when I arrived there, everything was different from what I was thinking. Here in the Home we wake up at 5:00 am. In the Philippines it is 3:45 am. The dorm doesn’t have paid cleaners, so before going to school we have group chores to do. At 4:30 am, we have to start to walk to the school about 2 km away to have our breakfast at 6:30 am. In Cambodia the school house is in the same compound as the Home. The food in Philippines is not so good. It is very salty.

“School life was also different. In the Home, we are in school for half a day because we spend the afternoons learning skill-work. In the Philippines, we are at academic school for the whole day. The curriculum is the same as the one we are using in the Home. I met many people in the school and made new friends, and was able to finish my 2nd year of high school. The Filipinos are friendly, hardworking, and diligent and do not complain. Their language is very different from Cambodian.

I was also able to have violin lessons for 6 months. In Cambodia I had learnt a little from people who dropped by to visit the Home. In the Philippines, I reached grade 2 of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. Back here in the Home, I am helping our new music teacher.

“My best and most memorable experience in the Philippines was attending a Youth Congress. I enjoyed the group assignments preparing for the congress, and making little gifts for the participants, who came from around the globe. I enjoyed meeting new friends, seeing them perform their different talents, and seeing their zealousness.

The only thing I really missed about Cambodia was the food. What I would like to introduce to Cambodia from the Philippines are the big shopping malls.”

The Goducate Children’s Home in Cambodia is fortunate to have large grounds that allow space for sports as well as for various livelihood projects. Under the leadership of the teacher who teaches Khmer language, the Home has started a football league. It is a good way of allowing the children from the Home and those from the neighboring communities get to know and have fun with each other, and for the latter to enjoy some of the facilities of the Home.

So far three teams have joined the league. 10 of the boys at the Home form one of the teams. The boys from the Home also take part in another league, that organized by Rawlings Institute.