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Our Indonesian Goducate worker finds a beautiful bride!

Recently I attended the wedding of our Indonesian Goducate staff worker, Lekson. The wedding was held at our Goducate Learning Center in Batam. The hall that normally is full of noisy kampong kids learning English was transformed into a “grand” wedding hall.

It was a joy for me to see Lekson, in his formal suit, standing next to his beautiful bride Yuli resplendent in her native Batak dress. As I looked at this fine-looking couple standing before me, I couldn’t help reflecting on how much Lekson has been transformed in the past 3 years. I still remember the Lekson who used to attend our Goducate sessions with blood-shot eyes, smelling of alcohol and tobacco, looking bored and distracted in class. I remember the angry, ill-disciplined young man who wasted his hard-earned money on gambling. I remember how he was always late because he couldn’t get up on time.Today, Lekson speaks to me in fluent English. He even teaches English in our Goducate centers. When we opened a new Goducate Center in Batam, he was appointed to head it. Today, he is a model of diligence and discipline. I felt like a proud father at this wedding!

I dream of the day that this new Lekson will reproduce many more little Leksons, not only through his dear wife but also through his life-example to the hundreds of children who come to our Goducate centers!

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The helpless become helpers (2)

Lexon is from Indonesia (front row, extreme right). After finishing middle high school in his home place in Sumatra, Lexon migrated to the island of Batam to look for work. He found a manual job in an oil refinery.

I first met Lexon, over three years ago, when he lived in a little squatter shack opposite the refinery in which he worked. Like the other young men in that squatter area, he had come to Batam with dreams of a better life. However, without proper guidance he quickly fell into bad habits. Thankfully one of our workers Sam Quek took him under his wing and invited Lexon to live with him.

He was weaned from his bad habits, learned discipline, became more confident, learned to speak English and discovered that he could lead other young people. Today, he is in charge of the Goducate Learning Center in Batu Aji, Batam.

On the last day of our training when it was time to share our dreams, this is what he said in fluent English: “I was JUNK! Real JUNK! I smoked! I was a drunk! I played gambling! I was hopeless but today I have hope!”

There were tears in his eyes and in almost every one of our eyes! Then, one of our leaders who works with troubled teens in East Malaysia spoke up and said: “Lexon, you give me hope. I dream of all my boys becoming like you!!”

I could not hold back my tears as I remembered the old hopeless Lexon – and marvelled at how he is now a giver of hope to his students at Batu Aji and to all of us at Goducate.

Let’s help the helpless help themselves! Volunteer! Be a part of Team Goducate!

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Urgently needed: English teachers and computer teachers for Indonesia

Yesterday, Ibu Roska, our co-worker in Indonesia came to the Goducate office to share with us her need of English teachers and computer teachers for Indonesia. Ibu Roska has been my long-time friend and co-worker in Indonesia. All our three centers in Batam, Indonesia, have been started with her help. Without her experience and expertise in starting projects in Indonesia, we would still be groping our way through the complex web of Indonesian immigration laws, corporate laws, educational laws, etc.

Ibu Roska has built about 20 schools in different parts of Indonesia – most of them in poorer communities. Besides these schools she has built so many other community projects that she is unable to remember them all! When I say “built,” I mean that she has been the one who was instrumental in planning, raising the funds to build it, recruiting the faculty and staff, raising the funds to pay for the running of the school until such time that it could be self-financing, etc. This is certainly no mean feat for a lady who has no funds of her own, who is not part of a large organization and who has three teenage children studying in Singapore to look after. As far as I can see, what drives this dear lady is her strong desire to help Indonesians help themselves through education.

A Goducate center in Indonesia started witht the help of Ibu Roska
A Goducate center in Indonesia started witht the help of Ibu Roska

Yesterday she told me that each of the schools she has started is in need of English teachers and computer teachers. There is a dire shortage of competent English teachers in Indonesia, and a shortage of competent computer teachers and computers in the Indonesian school system. This fits in nicely with our Goducate strategy of helping poor Asians in these two important areas of education.

We ended our meeting with an agreement for Goducate to send English and computer teachers to two of her projects – a school in a remote place near Pekan Baru, Sumatra, and a new center that she has just built in Batam. (More information of the places and scope of work will be posted after we have worked out the details.)

We look forward to helping Ibu Roska help her people help themselves – through provision of Goducate English teachers and computer teachers and computer resources.

Will you volunteer to teach English or computer skills to Indonesians?

Will you give your computers to them?