About 6 years ago Goducate started literacy centers in Sabah to cater to the numerous undocumented aliens of Filipino origin who are not entitled to state education. Over the years a few thousand children have learnt literacy and numeracy and some livelihood skills at these centers, and many have been able to get jobs in places such as restaurants, retail outlets, hairdressing saloons.
Some have stayed on as assistant teachers at the literacy centers, and some wish to continue with their schooling. So this year Goducate took on the challenge of bringing to the Goducate Training Center (GTC) in Iloilo 9 of the teens who have been working as assistant teachers. Here they are being taken through the Philippines Department of Education Alternative Learning System (ALS). It is a ladderized, modular, non-formal education program for people who have not completed their schooling. Goducate has been tutoring out-of-school youths and adults in ALS in its community programs. Those who successfully complete the secondary level of the ALS are eligible to apply for tertiary education.
The aim of bringing the Sabah teens to GTC is not only to enable them to finish their academic schooling, but also to train them to help their own communities when they return to Sabah. Hence, they are also undergoing parts of the training to be community development workers that the rest of the trainees at GTC are going through. The teens’ curriculum focuses on the learning of communication skills, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. They are taught how to make use of the resources they have, how to develop oneself, and how to expand one’s vision. After all, poverty is not merely the result of external factors, but also of the state of the mind. The Sabah teens have classroom training that is separate from the rest of the trainees, but they join the others in the community work in the areas around GTC, in some of which the effects of Typhoon Haiyan are still being felt.
After a few weeks at GTC, the Sabah teens have become confident in speaking English, and they have also picked up the Filipino language. They have opened up and shared about their dreams and what they want to be in the future. Through mingling with the other trainees they have learnt new skills such as photography, cooking, playing a new kind of sport, and also important lifeskills such as doing their own laundry and keeping their own place clean. Their talents are beginning to show through.
Goducate hopes that when they return to Sabah these 9 teens will be an encouragement to others in their community, who will see that that if they dream big and work hard there is a good chance they can bring themselves and their communities out of poverty.
