News – Page 3 – Goducate … Go And Educate!

2015-01-162015-01-17

Goducate helps food blogger spread happiness to migrant workers through food

Singaporean general practitioner Dr Leslie Tay, well known for his ieatishootipost blog, had been wanting to express his gratitude to the thousands of migrant workers who help build up the country, and naturally he did it through food. He organised a meal for 500 workers living in one of the 50 or so dormitories in Singapore.

Partnering him in his Happy Go Round party held on Jan 10 was the Singapore Kindness Movement. The dormitory chosen, which houses about 8000 workers, was one of those at which Goducate conducts its Happy Happy English program, so Goducate helped out with the entertainment, and 50 of the places were given to students in the program. The food was supplied by ezb (BBQ made easy). Many other organizations (M1, Gardenia, Pearlie White, Phoon Huat, Recruit Plus) contributed items needed for the meal as well as for the goody bags and prizes for the games and lucky draws. The management of the dormitory did a marvellous job in setting up the facilities and in ensuring the whole event went smoothly.

The evening ended with registration for the next term of Happy Happy English at this dormitory, which starts on Jan 24.

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Goducate’s Happy Happy English program is featured in newspapers on anniversary of Little India riot

Monday Dec 8 was the first anniversary of the riot in Little India that prompted Goducate to set up the Happy Happy English program in foreign workers’ dormitories in Singapore. Little India is a district in Singapore where Indian shops are concentrated and where foreign workers from the Indian subcontinent congregate on their days off.

Over the weekend and on Monday itself, Singapore newspapers commemorated the anniversary with reports on how the riot developed, the repercussions of the riot (such as the restrictions on sale and consumption of liquor in the area, and the restrictions on movement of foreign workers into the area), the findings of the committee of inquiry, and how foreign workers and locals have responded to the riot.

Two newspapers reported on Goducate’s Happy Happy English program. They reported on how the volunteers teach the workers functional English, but more importantly, as the name of the program implies, bring some happiness to these people by becoming their friends. These foreign workers have to leave home to live here in quarters that are generally in isolated parts of the island, and to work here for very long hours just to pay off debts and make ends meet at home. An equally important point made in the reports is how the program has helped to dispel some of the misconceptions that Singaporeans have about foreign workers—namely, that they are a group to be feared, when in fact they are very normal people like any of us.

Happy Happy English has so far been operating in three dormitories. We hope to bring happiness to workers in other dormitories as well.

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Happy Happy English students in two dormitories celebrate end of term

October saw Happy Happy English students in two foreign-worker dormitories in Singapore celebrate their end of term. For the dormitory in Tuas, at the western tip of Singapore, it was the second end-of-term celebration. Here, Goducate’s Happy Happy English program had started in January. The program had started at the other dormitory, in Jurong, in the middle of the year. The program has recently started at a third dormitory.

This program is intended to teach foreign workers functional English, as well as to extend to them a hand of friendship. A 12-term is broken into two 6 week sessions, with a 4-week break in between. During this break friendship is maintained with the students through various events.

At both dormitories students had fun with the ice-breaker games, singing, eating (food kindly provided by the dormitory management), and, for some, receiving their certificates of attendance. The larger space available at the Tuas dormitory enabled the event to start with a volleyball match against a team from Goducate’s Connectayo program (which caters for Filipino workers through sports), and for the students to put on a dance/mime item.

Some students went on stage to tell of their experience with the Happy Happy English program. For instance, one said, “I like Happy Happy English because it’s different. They not only teach English, they teach me how to live”. Another said, “Happy Happy English is very good. I like the Chinese men, the Bangla men and the Indian men all coming together and study. It’s very good”. Yet another said, “All of you must come to Happy Happy English. I like it very much. The teachers are good. Everything is good. You must come”.