Posted on

Goducate Training Center’s fish pond

On our recent trip to Goducate Training Center in Iloilo, Philippines we had the opportunity to catch the tilapia in our impounding lake.

The primary purpose of the impounding lake is to provide a source ofwater for our rice fields. Though there are 5 fresh-water springs on site, high-yielding rice requires lots of water to produce optimal yields.

Since the impounding lake is large (about half an acre) and deep (about 5 meters). we decided to stock it with fast-breeding fish. A local fish research institute gave us an hundred tilapia fingerlings a few months ago. Today, there are over 10,000 tilapia of various sizes.

Food to feed the tilapia is obtained from a local meat producer and bakery. Their “spoiled” meat and bakery items are fed to the tilapias.

We were handed bamboo fishing rods and we began pulling tilapia out of the lake every minute. The little tilapias were thrown back into the lake and the large breeders were also thrown back.

A visitor to GTC fishing for tilapia
A visitor with his tilapia (this size of this fish is made much larger because it is held near the camera!)

These fish will be the main source of animal protein for the Goducate trainees when they begin their training at the end of April.

 

The Goducate trainees will also learn to breed tilapias so that they can help poor communities find another source of protein and income.

Posted on

Goducate Training Center’s abundant harvest of mangoes

Recently I visited the Goducate Training Center with some friends and supporters of Goducate from USA, Indonesia, Singapore and South Africa. They had heard about this training center and were interested to find out more about how we hoped to train future Goducate workers.

The short visit coincided with the harvest of mangoes from the huge mango trees at the Center. The lady who had sold us the land was once the top mango “exporter” of that part of the Philippines and she had planted these mango trees. She was also the one, together with her family, of planting the mahogany trees and other fruit trees at the site.

We had the opportunity of seeing the workers harvest the mangoes. As the trees are very large, they had to strap themselves to ropes and be “pulleyed” up the various branches of the tree to reach the ripening mangoes.

Mango harvesters and their baskets hauled up the tree
A huge tree full of mangoes
Baskets and baskets of mangoes from one tree

The tree that was being harvested while we were there yielded about a ton of export-quality mangoes. The day before we arrived, 9 tons of mangoes were harvested. These fruits are sold to dealers and the funds used to support the center.

Thanks to the foresight of the previous owner the site also has abundant timber resources (mahogany and bamboo) which is harvested as building materials for the various buildings at the site.

Since we started developing the land, we have planted thousands of fruit trees and vegetable plants on the slopes of the site.

Hopefully, they will also produce harvests that will benefit future generations of Goducate trainees.

Posted on

Goducate Orchestra plays at university graduation ceremony

The Goducate Orchestra was invited to play at the graduation ceremony of one of our province’ state universities. It is the university at which one of our violinists, Liezl, is a student. She is also a member of the university band. Liezl is one of the members of the orchestra selected by the Once Upon A Village TV programme to go to Singapore for violin training.

It all started about a month before the event when a member of staff of the university visited our orchestra and asked our conductor Bernard to help with the arrangement of the university’s hymn and their alma mater’s song. The school president was very pleased with Bernard’s effort, and that led to the invitation to play at the commencement exercise.