Category: Livelihood Training

Nineteen members of the Benjamin Aguilar Elementary School (BAES) Chapter of the Goducate Junior CDW (community development workers) Club graduated on March 24. Among the club members, nine graduated with academic awards that included first honors, second honors, third honors, five with honorable mentions, and one with special award.

BAES is located in Anabo, Lemery. Lemery is a fourth-class municipality in the province of Iloilo, Philippines. Provinces in the Philippines are divided into cities and municipalities (also known as towns), and municipalities are classified by income according to their average annual income over the previous 4 calendar years, with first class municipalities having an income of PHP 55,000,000 ($1,243,938) or more, and sixth class less than PHP 15,000,000 ($339.251).

Junior CDW Club is Goducate’s program for elementary schools in Iloilo, Philippines. Its mission is to educate and empower youths to be readily available and able to assist in helping meet the needs of their community. Goducate believes that the hope of a country lies in the children. The vision is that all Junior CDW Club members will actively participate in helping develop their families and their own communities and will train others to do likewise.

Members of Junior CDW Clubs are students in grades four, five, and six who are willing to participate and be trained. The officers and members of the clubs meet every Saturday, from 7:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. They do fun activities and learn the values of good leadership. They are mentored on how to handle activities, lead songs, organize programs, and be good leaders. They also learn livelihood skills such as making moringa powder and doing vermiculture.

During the School’s 43rd Recognition Program in the morning, BAES awarded a certificate of recognition to Goducate and to Goducate community development workers for their help to the school and its pupils. The 43rd commencement (graduation) exercises were held in the afternoon.

*Our guest writer is Joanna De Leon

One of the municipalities that Goducate’s Community Development Workers for Barangays (CFB) project covers is Alimodian, in the province of Iloilo, Philippines. Alimodian is divided into 51 barangays (villages). Getting to some of these barangays is quite challenging. For example, to get to those furthermost ones takes an hour’s bumpy ride from the town proper, crossing mountains and rivers. This area covers 7 barangays with a population of 4500. Goducate sent a 7-man team to give health-care services and education to both the children and adults.

The trekking that had to follow the ride was challenging. It meant an hour’s mostly uphill walk under the scorching heat of the sun. However, the hospitality of the community offered to us on our arrival more than made up for the rigors of the journey. During the lectures, the people were very attentive and willing to learn about hypertension, diabetes, moringa, and hygiene practices. The adults were given free blood pressure and urine checks, and the children underwent nutritional assessment. The village leaders were very participative and also grateful that Goducate was able to go to their areas.

Since Goducate desires to help people help themselves, the team worked with those people who have leadership skills, who can lead and mobilize their own community. At the start of the program we allowed them to observe what we did, then we gave them little tasks while coaching them and eventually letting them do the work on their own. One of those was Mrs.Prizel Andea, a mother of 4. Her husband works in the army. She hosted the team for 4 days, helped with the BP taking by facilitating the registration and managing the crowd. She also made her own moringa powder and expressed a desire to do house-to-house demonstration of making moringa powder in her neighborhood.

Goducate CDWs always look out for more of these natural leaders, to be maximized to their full potential so that they can also help others help themselves.

Muhammid Ali Tilde is one of about 40 students in Laguna, Philippines, who are “Goducate scholars”—ie, they receive bursaries from a Goducate sponsor to enable them to further their education. Muhammid Ali, who will turn 21 in a couple of months, is the middle of 5 children of a couple who have been trying to make a living through various small business ventures.

In June 2012, Muhammid Ali entered the Eulogia “Amang” Rodiguez Institute of Science and Technology (EARIST) to study for a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management. But when his parents’ business there failed, they moved to live with his aunt in Laguna. So after 2 years at EARIST, he entered the Laguna State Polytechnic University Los Banos (LSPU LB). However, not all the courses taken at EARIST were accepted at LSPU LB, so he had to start as a 2nd year student, which meant another 3 years before graduating.

However, he has been doing well in sports at LSPU. He writes: “Since elementary I am Taekwondo player but I stop playing Taekwondo when I am in my high school level until first year collage because in my school in Manila, they don’t have a taekwondo competition. However, when I transfer in LSPU I start to train again. I was privileged to represent our campus on Inter-Campus of LSPU and I got a silver medal on that competition. It was just a start, the next year I got a gold medal and I went to Southern Tagalog Regional Association of State Universities and Colleges (STRASUC) Olympics last December 18-22 and I got a Silver medal on that competition.

I am now officially a 3rd year college student and very thankful and blessed to be a part of Goducate Scholars. The blessing is doubled because my younger sister is also a member of this group. This scholarship is a very huge blessing to me and my family because of this scholarship we can continue our schooling to have a better and brighter future”.