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A Reason for Hope

How much do you appreciate the art of music? Can you play an instrument? Can you even read sheet music? Did you ever think about how much impact music can have on someone’s life? As I visited Goducate centers in Laguna, I began to understand how important it is to get out of the cycle of poverty. How can people exit when their role models don’t know how to get out? Did you ever imagine that a recorder can give a child hope for a future?

The Goducate music program is only 10 months old—I got to see the impact it is beginning to have on lives in Laguna. Children proudly carried around their simple recorders, playing the songs they have memorized over and over. The children learn the basics of music with a recorder and after graduating from the recorder –knowing how to read music—they move on to more complex instruments like the flute or violin. Through various means, these children receive an instrument and learn to play it to the best of their ability.

Girls playing their recorders
A house in the village from which boy playing the violin comes

A girl that I met, Lizel, is 20 years old– well on her way to becoming a successful young woman. Having nearly completed 3 years of college, I learned how she managed to even get into college. Her violin was her gateway to freedom. She earned a full ride to a local university by knowing how to play this instrument and participating in the school orchestra. She did not learn how to play the violin through Goducate but this is an example of the effect that music can have on a life. I met her family, I saw her home, I know that there is no way her parents could have supported her to go to university. In addition to studying she earns P400 an hour to teach others violin.

The dream for the Goducate music program is to see more children have a successful exit plan from the cycle of poverty. If they can become proficient with their instrument they can earn scholarships through this. The strategy is to have those who learn for free, go on to teach others for free. I saw young teens teaching younger children how to play recorders and violins. I watched as a girl who has been playing her flute for only 10 months, teach others how to play. A young boy from a very poor village was proudly learning how to play his violin from his mentors. Another boy played his cello as if he’s been learning all his life–even though he’d only been playing for 6 months. It was precious to watch these dear people help their own people gain skills, to begin to achieve dreams for a brighter future.

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She now loves children, and loves helping them

What would you do if you were stuck in a cycle of poverty and the oldest child in the family? What if your mother continued to have children even though there was no food to feed the ones that were already born? How would you break free, where would you turn?

In Laguna I met L, a 30-year-old mother of 3 who shared with me her life story. She was nervous because of her level of English but I understood her quite easily. She shared that she’s one of 16 children, the youngest now 4. She grew up in a very poor village and was the oldest in her family. Their family was hungry, poor, and without much hope. At the age of 16 she married another boy from the village—because in him she found love and comfort that she so longed for. Being married meant that she wasn’t a burden to her parents any more; she was now to fend for herself. One year later a baby girl entered their lives. Because she was an older sister to so many children, she didn’t really desire to be a mother and told me that she even hated children. She certainly did not want to follow in her mother’s footsteps.

As L’s daughter grew up, a son was added to the family—then years later another son. She said 3 are plenty for her. I’m sure it’s still a struggle to keep a family of 5 fed but far more manageable than if there were more.

As she mentioned her hatred towards children, I could tell that there had to be a change in her at some point because her work now is directly linked with children. About 7 years ago her heart changed and softened regarding many aspects of life, including her acquiring a love for children. She continued to share that every afternoon her family travels by motorbike to a remote village to teach children there. Her daughter leads music lessons for the children while she teaches young children basic knowledge.

A dream L and her husband share is to establish a Goducate learning center in this village. I had the privilege of visiting this village, being welcomed by the children and parents alike. There is a plot of land next to the yard where they’re currently meeting that is for sale. They’re dreaming of getting that piece of land to build a center where she will educate the children of the village. Their family would move out to this village to help the people by living among them.

the village in which she grew up.
The village in which her family works and the children she teaches
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One plate of rice for five!

Recently I was in Laguna, Philippines visiting families that were part of Goducate’s Veg@table project – that aims to help poor families growvegetables in their yards for their own consumption.

I visited a row of resettlement houses that had been helped by Goducate’s Veg@table team and saw the little yards filled withvegetable (tomatoes, string beans, eggplants) and the proud “farmers” showing off their produce.

These poor people had been resettled by the government because their homes in Manila had been destroyed by a terrible typhoon a few years ago. Their new homes were simple one-room cement houses with electricity that could withstand the next typhoon. However, they wereover 2 hours away from Manila where their jobs were (if they had jobs then).

In their new settlement there were absolutely no jobs and many of them survive through the help of friends and relatives.

As I walked around the settlement, I was introduced to a man whose wife had just left him and their 5 children. The man had been injuredin a recent motor accident and was unable to work. When I visited them, there was exactly one plate of plain rice for the 5 children.One of the kids was deaf and he was eating out of the plate. The other four had nothing. I looked around the one-room house and there wasabsolutely no food in it – just an empty pot on a portable stove.

The little deaf boy gets to eat (note color of his sister's hair on the right)

With my medical training, I could see signs of malnutrition from their size, bellies and hair color.

The father asked for 20 pesos (50 cents) to buy some rice. We did more than that, we had already helped him to plant vegetables in his yard. Hopefully, one day soon those little kids will get to eat not only rice but also some freshly grown vegetable from their own yard!

Goducate has much work to do to help these poor people help themselves.