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Goducate creates communication center for meetings with Philippines police

The Covid-19 pandemic meant that Goducate resorts could not open for large physical events, so one of the container vans that used to provide dormitory-type accommodation has been transformed into a  Technical Assistance Center (or Communications Center) for the Philippines National Police (PNP) Squad Weekly Interactive Zoom meetings. Such meetings are held for police in 17 regions, 81 provinces, and 1,488 municipalities of the Philippines. The program ministers to 3,734 PNP personnel every week.

Squad Weekly Interactive Meetings (SWIM) is a PNP program that aims to help uniformed PNP personnel to experience transformation in their personal lives, in their family lives, and in their careers, and these changes are part of the PNP Chief’s internal-cleansing policy.

During SWIM’s one hour-and-a-half Zoom program, PNP personnel can share their thanksgiving, their reflections about the topic under discussion, and their hearts’ desires after listening to the topic for the week. They then split up to go into breakout rooms, where life coaches facilitate further discussion.

Helping in this weekly “squadding” are Goducate staff, Goducate scholars, 795 Life Coaches from all over the Philippines and other volunteers.

NOW: a Technical Assistance Center for PNP

*Jucel Ronie Arceo is the person in charge of the SWIM program.

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Go Bikes Team in Luzon feed children and mentor young adults

With the restrictions on sports facilities and sports activities in the Philippines during the Covid-19 pandemic, biking/cycling has increased in popularity. It has led Goducate volunteers to set up GoBikes programs, one of which operates in the Province of Negros (see blog of 2021_08-28).

Another Go Bikes program was set up in May in Luzon. During the first three rides, volunteers distributed facemasks to street vendors. Subsequently, the Luzon Go Bikes team started to distribute food to children on Saturdays.

On one of the weekdays, individual team members cycle to meet members of the community whom they are mentoring on life skills. Our team is still small. We have eight active members, and 4 members of community are being mentored.  

Biking is not only an effective way of reaching out to young professionals, but it has also helped members of our team to bond with each other.

A problem is that many of the young people do not possess bicycles, so members of our team lend them their bicycles to enable them to join the Saturday bike rides.

*Our guest writer, Stephen Luceno, is a Goducate staff in-charge of Sports.
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Goducate Baguio provides life coaches to the police

The Goducate Team in Baguio had started to help the local branch of the Philippine National Police (PNP) with the Enhanced Revitalized Internal Cleansing Strategy (ERICS) (see Goducate blog of March 27, 2020), but the program was interrupted by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. So the program was converted to a virtual one using Zoom as a platform.

Under the ERICS program, members of the police force have to be part of a squad, with each squad being guided by life coach.

Goducate is one of the organizations that provide life coaches to the PNP. The Goducate Baguio team has been conducting the Squading Weekly Interactive Meeting (SWIM) on Zoom since July 2020. There are now nearly 60 police officers attending the weekly Zoom sessions held in various provinces around the region—namely, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Abra, Benguet, Apayao, and Kalinga. 

*Our guest writer is Carmela Damaso, a member of Goducate staff.