Recently a small team from Goducate visited Myanmar to see what help Goducate could give the needy there to help themselves. We had been urged to do so by a Goducate supporter who visited that country a year ago. In the mean time we had met or had been in touch with some people who work among the needy in Myanmar, running an orphanage and/or teaching needy local children, and were able to visit them.
The very poor in Myanmar are not hard to find. We visited villages where people live in makeshift or very broken-down huts, without electricity or running water. At one place, the muddy green water being used came from a very shallow well that obviously contained rain water and overflow water from the drains, rather than groundwater. Food was cooked over a fire created from bits of charcoal that the people had scavenged for.
Goducate is now thinking about the specific role it can play in helping the needy in Myanmar to help themselves.
A very poor village; pile on the ground on the left is of bits of charcoal being left to dry before useInspecting the shallow wellAt literacy class run by volunteers, children singing their hearts out for us. Note bare room, where walls are used as blackboard.
Last year, Goducate published a book of articles by the children living at the Goducate Children’s Home in Cambodia. The pieces in “In The Shoes of a Cambodian Child” give an insight into what goes on in the minds and hearts of children from dysfunctional families and how their experiences have affected them.
This year Goducate will be producing a collection of articles by some of the needy children being served by Goducate in The Philippines. Unlike the children at the Goducate Children’s Home, the Filipino children are living in the community with their families, though not necessarily happy ones, nor their immediate ones. As is well known, many Filipinos go abroad to work, leaving their children behind in the care of others. Thus “In The Shoes of a Filipino Child” will also feature stories of emotional hardship as well as physical hardship. But there will also be stories of what makes them happy, and it is touching to read of what simple things are enough to bring them a little bit of joy in life. We hope that the stories by these children will create awareness among those who are comfortably off about how much poverty there is in the world around them.
For the coming book, a team from Goducate went to get photographs of the children who have contributed to the book. Our timing was bad. It rained very heavily nearly all of the three days that we were there. Manila was especially badly affected by one of the most serious floodings in decades, and there were 60 deaths from the rains reported while we were there. Although we were about an hour’s drive away from Manila, some of the villages and homes we had to visit were also flooded. Seeing people in their homes cooking a meal while standing more than ankle-deep in water as though it was the most natural thing to do made us realize how frequently they have to go through these hardships. However, at least they had electric lights at night, unlike those families relocated after their homes in Manila were destroyed by Typhoon Ondoy in 2009. Those families in the relocation area are still waiting for electricity, and one of the children has written of the hardship of not having any light to work by at night.
Our photographer Annabel at work during one of the very few dry spellsOur team having to wade in muddy water to get our photographs
What nicer way to celebrate a birthday than to eat and laugh with family and friends. So that’s how Liz Poey decided to spend her 60th birthday. The thing with Liz is that she doesn’t always do things the conventional way. For this event she made her guests dig into their pockets for the pleasure of attending the dinner. And deep they had to dig, with places priced at $150 to $500 per person. Yet within a few weeks seats at all 29 tables were sold out. What Liz was doing was to raise awareness and support for Goducate again—for a couple of years ago she had channelled most of the proceeds from the sale of her autobiography to Goducate. Goducate is very grateful to her and her chums for their extreme generosity that went beyond the price of the seats.
Liz herself generated the laughter with her stand-up comedy show, inducing guests to laugh with and at her. She is no novice at being a stand-up comedian, the 60th birthday show (Endorphin Rush 2) being her second. For Endorphin Rush 2 most of the humorous stories were derived from her life as teacher, school principal, and cancer patient. Those who missed hearing the jokes live or want to share them with others can order a DVD of the event through Liz’s website.
A student at the National Junior College in Singapore when Liz was a teacher there, and who is now the chief executive officer of MHC Asia Group, decided to add to the interest of the evening in a novel way. He announced that for every “Like” received on the MHC Asia Group facebook page, his company would contribute $60 (up to a maximum of $20,000) to buy a van for Goducate projects in Laguna.
Liz Poey the comedian"Queen Elizabeth Poey", who shares the same birthday with Queen Elizabeth II.
Liz is a marvelous example of what Goducate would like its recipients to be. Once they have helped themselves, we would like them to go on to help others, so that Goducate becomes a movement.
Liz Poey handing the contributions collected to Goducate founder, Paul Choo
Despite her cancer Liz has directed her energies to helping not only Goducate but also cancer patients and animal welfare. We wish Liz many more years of health and such worthy work.
