Every July is Nutrition Month in the Philippines. The 4 Goducate Literacy Centers in Laguna jointly held a Nutrition Day event at the Goducate Training Center. The theme for this year’s Nutrition Month was Timbang iwasto sa tamang nutrisyon at ehersisyo (Proper weight through right nutrition and exercise). It was chosen to emphasize the problem of obesity among Filipinos.
The program began with a parade of the children wearing their costumes of different vegetables. Then Mrs. Liza Espanola, one of the teachers, shared with the parents how children achieve their correct weight through proper nutrition and proper physical exercises.
The literacy centers in Puy-puy and Mabacan contributed to the program by singing “Bahay Kubo” (a Filipino children’s folk song about various vegetable plants around a nipa hut), and the Sta.Cruz and Lalao centers danced to the song of “Makulay ang buhay sa sinabawang (colorful life with vegetable soup).
Parade in vegetables costumesSinging Bahay KuboDance item
Goducate in Laguna has been helping the community through basketball. This game not only helps to keep kids off the streets but also to help them learn values such as discipline, teamwork, and leadership. For those who train to be basketball referees and table officials, the game provides a source of income. We have been holding basketball training sessions every Saturday for some 60 children aged 5-16. We also started a barangay (village) league which ran for 2 years till we ran out of funds this year.
Last month we extended our sports program to our Philippine National Police (PNP), in particular to the Laguna Provincial Public Safety Company (LPPSC).
On July 29 we held a seminar and training session for referees and coaches. The seminar was led by Goducate Sports Coordinator David ‘Boycie’ Zaman, an assistant coach for the San Miguel branch of the Philippine Basketball Association, which is champion of this year’s National League.
The program started with a word of encouragement by coach Boycie, who described how basketball had helped him to be the person he is today, able to influence the lives of young men who desire to become successful in basketball. He went on to encourage our men in uniform to reach out to youth through sports, through the PNP public community relations (PCR) program. He explained how getting youth to play basketball can draw them away from drug addiction, one of the largest probems in the Philippines now.
I had thought that only our barangay league had difficulty finding qualified officials, but it turns out that even the PNP has the same problem. To find a solution to this problem, further training session were held on Aug 5 and Aug 10.
Our long-term goal now is to create a group or organization of coaches, referees and table officials with integrity. We will draw them from different social levels in the community and give them a chance to earn some income from this work.
This month we plan to let our police trainees officiate in an actual basketball league event. We also hope to bring the same training to other police stations.
Coach Boycie addressing the traineesParticipants at the training session
As part of the training in emergency preparedness at the Goducate Training Center, a fire seminar was held on June 23 for our regular as well as our temporary staff. Two officers from the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) us about the different substances that cab create fire and what precautions to take.. They also taught the different kinds and parts of a fire extinguisher and and how to use it. The mnemonic for using a fire extinguisher is to simply PASS it:
Pull the pin.
Aim the nozzle at the base of the fire.
Squeeze the trigger.
Sweep the extinguisher from side to side.
We also learnt about different kinds of fire and different kinds of extinguishers. Class A fires are fueled by ordinary solid combustibles such as wood, cloth, and paper products. Class B fires arise from flammable liquids and gases. Class C fires are electrical fires (which must not be extinguished with water because that carries the risk of electrocution). Class D fires are those that arise from flammable metals. Class K (“K” for kitchen) are fires in cooking oils and grease fires (which should never be extinguished with water because that could cause the flames to explode and spread).
Fire extinguishers for specific types of fires are distinguished by different color codes.
There was seminar was not only instructive but also enjoyable. There was a question and answer session, and our instructor entertained us with the Firefighter song.
*Our guest writer in Jezzah May Regalado, a community development worker
