Featured – Page 6 – Goducate … Go And Educate!

2013-05-14

Goducate starts to move into Bangladesh

Since Goducate aims to help needy Asians help themselves, Bangladesh is a country that has attracted its attention.

Recently, Bangladesh was in the news because of a horrific factory collapse that killed over 1100 garment workers. I was in the country when that accident took place.

Bangladesh is the most densely populated large country. It has about 160 million people (half of US population) squeezed into a land area the size of Florida. It is a land of natural tragedies (cyclones and floods). Most of its export earnings come from the garment industry— where the starting wage is less than US$40 per month. 3.5 million people work in terrible conditions in these garment factories.

I spent several days surveying the capital city of Dhaka with a friend, Peter, who is a Korean doing his doctoral thesis on Bangladeshi culture. Dhaka is one of the most crowded cities in the world with over 400,000 rickshaws on its streets every day. It is also called the City of Mosques—with mosques everywhere in this country where 90% are Muslims. Since Peter is fluent in Bangladeshi, we were able to move around freely and talk to people, from those in the poorest slums to those in the most expensive universities.

At the end of my survey, I decided that we first need to learn more about Bangladesh before we start any Goducate projects. I believe that the best place to learn about Bangladesh is in Dhaka University, the premier university of Bangladesh. Peter does his research in this university. It is the dream of almost every Bangladeshi to study in Dhaka University. Though it is the premier university, its facilities are overstretched. In the dormitories that I visited, 35 men sleep in a crowded room (the size of a typical small classroom) on mats.

One of our recent graduates from Goducate Training Center, Jaime, has volunteered to be the first Goducate worker in Bangladesh. Jaime, who grew up in a poor family in the Philippines, has extensive experience working among the poor in various development agencies. He has worked in Bangladesh previously when he was with another organization. He is presently trying to enrol in Dhaka University to study Bangladeshi.

We dream of the day when Goducate can help needy Bangladeshis help themselves.

2013-03-222013-03-24

Goducate holds its Third Summit

Last week Goducate country representatives, the headquarters team, Goducate partners, Goducate Training Center staff and trainees, and invited guests attended the 4-day Third Goducate Summit, which was held at the Goducate Training Center in Iloilo. The country representatives came from Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Those from Malaysia and Myanmar were unable to be present.

Country representatives as well as project leaders and consultants in specialist areas of work shared their experiences, mistakes, and lessons learnt, while headquarters staff shared dreams for the future, drove home good management and accounting practices, and reminded the audience about internet security. Each day closed with a lively question-and-answer session.

The “real” business, though, was conducted on the day after the summit ended, during focus-group meetings. These were led by project leaders in various areas of work—such as agriculture, livelihood training, sports, music, English teaching, etc. During these sessions, those specially interested in following up such work were able to clarify in greater detail what they wanted to know.

The meeting was a chance for Goducate workers to share ideas about how best to help the needy help themselves in various ways. For the present batch of trainees it was an opportunity to learn about Goducate work in different countries, and to talk face-to-face with the country representatives of places they might like to work in when they finish their training.

Trainees who presented a glow-in-the-dark performance

2013-02-082013-02-08

Goducate trainees encouraged to dare to dream

Last week, Dr Low Lee Yong launched his book “I Dare to Dream”. About 200 people attended the launch held at MHC Asia’s premises in Singapore.

Dr Low, who is the founder of MHC Asia, Singapore’s largest third-party medical administrator, which links over 1000 clinics in Singapore, has been a staunch supporter of Goducate from its beginning. MHC Asia is Goducate’s largest corporate sponsor, giving up to 10% of its profits to Goducate. It also provides us with space in its office for use as Goducate’s headquarters, as well as with staffing help and services that we need to run our office. These provisions enable Goducate to save money on office rental and administrative costs, which can instead be used to fund our projects.

In the book, Dr Low describes his life growing up in a poor village and struggling against all odds to achieve his dreams. This story resonates with Goducate’s goal of helping needy Asians help themselves—by first helping them to dare to dream.

Dr Low dedicated this book to Goducate with these words: “This book is dedicated to the lives that have been touched by Goducate and the lives it will continue to touch”. He presented me a personally signed copy with these words “Dear Paul, Thanks for bringing Goducate into MHC and for bringing new meaning into MHC business”.

I brought a pile of personally signed copies of the book to Goducate Training Center in Iloilo, Philippines, to give to our new batch of trainees, and I encouraged them to read the book and to learn to dream. Daring to dream is an important part of our training because our graduates will go on to help needy Asians—many of whom fear to dream of ever breaking out of their hopeless lives!