Dr. Paul Yew Hua Choo is the founder and chairman of Goducate Limited, a Singapore-based not-for-profit organization with projects in nine Asian countries that include China, Cambodia, Malaysia, Mynmar, India, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, and Vietnam. Goducate is coined from two words, “ Go and Educate”. Its avowed purpose is to help needy Asians help themselves.
Born in Singapore on 29 July 1947, Dr. Choo obtained his elementary and secondary education from the Anglo-Chinese School. He graduated from the Medical Faculty, University of Singapore (renamed National University of Singapore) and qualified as a medical doctor in 1971. He was conferred with honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Bob Jones University, South Carolina, USA in 1998.
Goducate Training Center (GTC) is situated in Iloilo.
Thankfully, Typhoon Yolanda (aka Haiyan) veered north as it neared Iloilo and GTC was spared from the full impact of Yolanda. GTC only suffered minor damage and the loss of a few trees.
Immediately after Yolanda passed, our Disaster Relief Task Force swung into action. Our team has helped in other disasters but Yolanda’s destruction surpasses them all. In our previous major relief effort in eastern Mindanao caused by Super Typhoon Bopha (aka Pablo) last year our team reported “indescribable damage”. This time the same team reported that the damage is much worse!
We realize that we have to be wise in our relief efforts so that we do not waste our limited human and financial resources. Our usual strategy is to bring “immediate relief” in the first few weeks of our operations. Bottled water and ready-to-eat food is vital for those who have not had any food or drink for a few days. This is akin to setting up an IV drip for a dying patient. In our emergency-provisions are also other necessities (eg. matches, candles, canned food). Nails and fasteners are also very useful because many houses have lost their roofs and the rains continue after the typhoon has passed. With these nails they are able to use bits of wood to provide some shelter from the rain.
In our teams are trained nurses to provide first-aid to those who have suffered from falling and flying debris and provide medications for those who are sick from exposure and lack of food. We try to focus our efforts on places that are easier to reach from GTC so that we can be maximally effective and minimize costs of travel. This means that we will focus on northern Panay. We also focus our efforts on places where we have “contacts” so that eventual follow-up work will be more
effective.
Though we focus on northern Panay, we will also try to help those who are most affected by Yolanda, namely, Tacloban (Leyte). Today our team leader left Iloilo for Tacloban to survey the area and to meet our contacts there and to assess how we can help.
We must plan for this relief effort as if it is a long-distance race. After we’ve helped people to survive with food, water and medicines, we must help them to “get back” by rebuilding their houses, replanting their crops, etc. This is the difficult part of relief work that most organizations shun but this is where Goducate’s philosophy of “helping needy Asians help themselves” will be most useful.
Damaged homeDamaged homeTent under which family spent the nights after their home was damaged
In early December last year, the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines was hit by Typhoon Bopha (known locally as Typhoon Pablo). This category 5 typhoon was the worst disaster in the world in 2012 by way of lost human lives. However, by the end of last month the UN had received only $38.76 million of the $111.8 million that it had appealed for. The challenge at hand, from the UN’s perspective, is to help build comfortable shelters and provide victims of the disaster with such basic needs as staples, clothing, and health care.
In late December Goducate had visited the affected area to assess what help it could offer, especially in the longer term. Last month Goducate returned with a team of medical personnel and agricultural experts, to attend to the medical needs of and to give advice to the predominantly farming households. Dubbed operation “Lift a Burden”, the team of 30 was helped by 70 on-site volunteers who provided the pre-identified 2,500 victims in the towns of Monkayo, New Bataan, and Nabunturan with relief aid—medicines, rice, groceries, clothes, shoes, and assorted vegetable seeds.
Next, the Goducate Training Center in Iloilo, in partnership with local organizations, hopes to implement a cohesive, holistic, and sustainable program in New Bataan, Compostela Valley, the area worst hit by the disaster. Community development workers trained at the Goducate Training Center will be deployed in Compostela Valley in pro-active and participative initiatives.
Tent shelters outside the gymnasium also occupied by displaced familiesAssorted medicines provided by Goducate to typhoon victims
Dr. Paul Yew Hua Choo is the founder and chairman of Goducate Limited, a Singapore-based not-for-profit organization with projects in nine Asian countries that include China, Cambodia, Malaysia, Mynmar, India, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, and Vietnam. Goducate is coined from two words, “ Go and Educate”. Its avowed purpose is to help needy Asians help themselves.
