Category: Learning Centers

Last week, a small group of us visited the literacy centers set up by Goducate for poor children in Sabah.

We only managed to see only 5 of these 9 literacy centers due to time and logistical constraints (it was difficult to reach these centers, situated over mangrove swamp and out-of-the-way villages). Thankfully it was low tide with soggy and muddy ground and not high tide flooded with sea-water when we visited one of them. To reach another, we had to take a boat and walk on wobbly planks. Then to reach another, it was 30minutes walk from the road in heavy downpour, and some of us slipped and fell in the slippery mud! Pretty adventurous! But all’s well worth the “exercises”!

We had heard stories about these undocumented “refugees” from the Philippines who are needy. We had seen many photos of these children, most, if not all, cute and charming faces (most of the time, credits were given to the photographers and their awesome, expensive cameras!).

Little did we think of the warm smiles and sweet voices! Thus, when we met the children in person in these villages, and heard their cheery greetings “Good Morning Vistooors!!!”, my heart melted immediately!!!

When they queued and took turns to shake our hands, my heart was filled with love for them! When I saw their eagerness to learn, reciting alphabets & numerals loudly, writing each stroke seriously and carefully on the boards or their homework books, I felt their deep desire to be educated!

It’s great joy to see the faces of happy children@schools despite the basic infrastructure and hot/wet weather. Most of all, I see hope in their eyes as they are now able to learn ABCs and be educated and useful to the society.

There was no way for these children to go to school, but Goducate made it possible cos schools “went to them” instead!

“If the mountain won’t come to Muhammad, Muhammad must go to the mountain.” This boy quoted the above popular proverb during his brief testimony of how the literacy center which was set up in his kampung changed his whole life.

He had arrived without proper documentation from the Philippines to Sabah, with his family years ago. His parents said he would go to school once they obtained proper papers. But the months turned to years, and he and his siblings grew taller and older and they still sat at home, and still could not read an alphabet. Would they stay illiterate forever. What hope would they have in such a condition?

Then one day, two years and four months ago, Goducate representatives set up the first little school house in his kampung and registered over a hundred children in one day. I had visited that little schoolhouse shortly after it was started. That first visit was in August 2008.

A week ago, I made my second visit there, and noted with pleasure the wonderful changes.

Firstly, the four new beautiful schoolhouses which had sprung up after the first one more than two years ago. Secondly, the number of ladies in the kampung who were now teaching actively had multiplied from three to a dozen! Thirdly, the children proudly and clearly reciting English phrases written on the board – a far cry from the ABCs they were still learning two years ago. Fourthly, the neat pathways, the pots of flowers, the neat rows of shoes outside the classrooms, all attesting to the pride and care the villagers have for their own kampung school.

Such improvements! Once upon a time, these people had no hope, no future at al, they lived hand to mouth, their children waited in vain to go to school, and eventually ended up in hopelessness. All that changed gradually, but surely!

In Singapore where I live, one of the biggest charities is the Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund. Children from low-income families were attending school without proper breakfast, or pocket money to sustain their day in school, and this charity provided some money so that they could eat.

But… just a short distance away from Singapore lived thousands of children who could not even go to school! Yet for a mere US$16/- (S$20/-) it is possible to put one child through the literacy program for one month.

Goducate is a non-profit organization which had helped these villagers help themselves, by setting up literacy centers within nine kampungs to-date. Possibly two more kampungs will have new literacy centers by year-end.

For further information on how to be of help please contact us by clicking here.

The Goducate work in setting up and running the literacy centers in Sabah could not have progressed very much without the help of willing volunteers who come regularly to teach and train our team of nearly fifty teachers.

These teachers are mainly mothers of the kids in the various kampungs, who used to work as washer-women, roadside food sellers and at other menial jobs to make a living, until Goducate helped the kampungs to set up the literacy centers, so that their kids could receive an education. Although most mothers have high school education, none had any teaching experience.

The volunteers we met last week came from the Philippines, and stayed for a few weeks to a month to conduct training for the mothers. Training is done daily on the job – observing the lessons, and teaching the children alongside the mothers in the schoolhouses, as well as conduct intensive, two-day training sessions in rented premises away from the kampungs.

The lady on the left (in green, above photo) is Lemar, an expert in ALS (Alternative Learning System) form of education in the Philippines. There are now several ALS centers in the Philippines to give underprivileged kids who were formerly drug addicts, gangsters or school dropouts a second chance at education. This particular form of education is applied in Sabah.

Bing (in blue, above photo) is a bead-making expert, and she arrived in Sabah with her luggage full of beads, pearls and other ornaments. Her goal – to teach the mothers a simple livelihood skill – bead-making, and those who become good at it can make pretty necklaces, earrings, bracelets etc to supplement their income.

Goducate needs many volunteers with useful skills to go to Sabah to help these villagers help themselves. Will you be a volunteer?