Featured – Goducate … Go And Educate!

2020-03-272020-04-03

Goducate starts third center in the Philippines

Goducate Baguio was launched on March 2. Baguio is located in the Province of Benguet, a part of Luzon, which sits at the northern end of the Philippines. Although once the capital of Benguet, Baguio is now a chartered city in that it is administered independently from the province.

Present at the launch were Goducate founder Paul Choo from Singapore and teams from Goducate Iloilo and Goducate Laguna.

At the half-day conference attended by community leaders from Baguio and Benguet, Paul Choo explained the goal, mission, and vision of Goducate. Carmela Damaso from Goducate Laguna then described the platforms used there for reaching the community. Finally, Leo Decinal shared about the partnership between Goducate Laguna and the Regional Mobile Force Battalion (RMFB) Calabarzon. Calabarzon is an administrative region made up of five provinces, one of which is Laguna.

After the conference, courtesy calls were made on the Commander of the RMFB of Cordillera, which is an administrative region on Luzon, and on the Mayor of Baguio City. Both expressed their approval of Goducate’s goal of developing leaders, who then will help others.

Already community leaders in Baguio trained by Goducate have been helping the Philippine National Police with the Enhanced Revitalized Internal Cleansing Strategy (ERICS). ERICS is a re-training program for members of the police force who have erred in some way. The aim of the program is to have a clean, disciplined police force.

Leaders learning about Goducate from Paul Choo

Our Team with the team from RMFB-15 (Cordillera).

*Our guest writer is Cristine Joy Capsula, a staff member at Camp Goducate, Laguna.

2019-10-232019-10-23

Goducate musicians from Philippines and singers from Indonesia perform in Singapore

A team of Goducate musicians from the Philippines, and a team of children from Indonesia trained in Goducate’s Sing Your English (SYE) program were in Singapore to perform at MHC Asia Group Pte Ltd’s 25^th anniversary dinner on Oct 7.

The trip to Singapore was an opportunity that the children might otherwise never have to travel out of their country. Through the generosity of Dr Low Lee Yong, founder and CEO of MHC, the children also had a few days enjoying Singapore’s attractions.

The music program in Laguna, Philippines, began as a means of attracting out-of-school youth back into education by offering lessons on playing the recorder. It has grown into successful program, with children learning how to play a whole range of instruments. Not only has the team been invited to play at various events, but many individuals have obtained university scholarships based on their musical ability, and two are now university students majoring in music.

The SYE program is a popular program in Indonesia for giving children the confidence to speak English. Although students learn English in school, most do not use the language out of class, but learning the language through song somehow gets them singing English sentences wherever they happen to be.

For its 25^th anniversary, MHC also donated a total of Sing$1 million to several organizations. Goducate, which received Sing$300,000, was the largest recipient.

2015-05-082015-05-12

Happy Happy English students appreciate friendship with Goducate volunteers

One aim of Goducate’s Happy Happy English program in Singapore is to teach foreign workers functional English. An equally important aim is to offer some friendship to these workers, who have had to leave family and friends to work long hours here and to live in huge dormitories that are generally located in extremely remote parts of Singapore. Thus, apart from classroom work, the Goducate volunteers in the Happy Happy English program also organise outings for the students.

On April 26 Tamil Murasu, Singapore’s Tamil newspaper, carried a feature on Goducate. When the reporters heard that an outing was being organized for students on May Day, they turned up to cover the event, which was a morning at one of the parks for some games and a picnic lunch.

Comments from two of the students were included the report published on May 2. R Silambarasan, who has been working in Singapore for 8 months said, “Singaporeans are kind-hearted to organise this game event. Even though we miss many English classes, they continue to encourage and motivate us. They sacrifice their time for us and we really appreciate them. Even though we have left home, we feel the volunteers are there for us”.

Another comment came from Franklin Bosco, who was being retrenched and sent back to India that night because the company he was working for had been taken over by another. He said, “For the past 3 years, I have worked in Singapore and am leaving today for my homeland. I am very happy and I can never forget this event. This is the best May Day I have spent in Singapore. The volunteers have made us feel strong and brave. Even after I have left Singapore, I will continue to keep in touch with them through Facebook”.