On
April 17, Goducate held a recital in Camp Goducate Laguna, a year after the previous one on Feb 27,
2021. It had been preceded by a 3-month workshop. The recital was attended by 67 performers, as
well as their guardians andorphans/musicians from the Rose of Sharon
House of Friendship as the observers. The recital was open to everyone, but the
youth and beneficiaries of the feeding program were prioritized.
Music
was one of the earliest programs that Goducate introduced in the Philippines
because it was a good way of reaching out to out-of-school youth.
When
I took charge of the music program in 2018, I planned to expand it to the
community. The aim was not only to teach music, but also to improve the lives of
students and teachers through character building and home visits.
In
2019, the program, called GoMusic, was brought to Masaya Elementary School,
then also to Masaya Junior High School, where we were given a room for our
program, but the pandemic stopped the program in March 2020. The music program at
the two schools has not resumed because the school facilities are opened only
for temporary limited face-to-face
classes.
GoMusic
did resume in February 2021 but only for a 2-week workshop and then a recital.
The intention was to divert the
youths’ anxiety due to the pandemic into an interest in music, and thus to help
them unwind. However, the program was held inconsistently throughout the
year because of changing community quarantine levels.
67
music students took part in this year’s workshop and recital. 48 of them were new music students; meaning, they were beginners, unlike those who took part in the previous workshop
who were students with some basic knowledge of music. Of the new
students, 14 came from Janiuay, Iloilo, 16 came
from Goducate’s feeding program, 6 were children of Goducate staff, and 12 were
youth from the community (specifically
from different Barangays of Bay, Los Baños, and Calauan, Laguna, which are the
outreach areas of the Pastors, and where feeding programs are being conducted).
The students from Janiuay were already learning to play the guitar, but did not
know how to play the recorder. So we started them on recorder lessons in
February. They are taught via Zoom. While the online tutorial is being held, local
facilitators oversee and guide the students.
For
the rest of this year, GoMusic aims to take on the challenge of bringing the
hybrid program (i.e., providing music workshops and recitals both face-to-face
and online via Zoom) to the rest of the country.
In
the GoMusic classes being held online in a church in Iloilo, the students focus
mainly on the guitar and recorder, whereas the students in Laguna focus on the recorder
and violin. The difference in
focus is due merely to availabilities of instruments and teachers in the two
areas. In addition, the recorder is easier to teach online.
The next music workshop and recital, to be held on August 27, is expected to have 110 participants (80 recorder players and 30 choir members). Sixty of the expected recorder players are beneficiaries of the feeding program in Laguna. The 20 from Iloilo will be tutored online. Of the singers, 15 will come from the Rose of Sharon House of Friendship, and 15 are beneficiaries of the feeding program.
*Our guest writer is Jonathan Luceno - Director of GoMusic
