The community farm in Tagumpay set up early last year for the victims of the heavy monsoon known as Typhoon Habagat has proved to be very productive (see blogs Apr 19, 2013 and Feb 14, 2014) despite being unusable during August to December because of floods. After harvesting about 1.6 tons of mustard and pechay since the start of this year, the farmers have paid back to Goducate the seed capital.
Another plot of land about 1000sq m in area and adjacent to the original 2000sq m farm has been made available to the farmers. It has been planted with a variety of vegetables, such as tomatoes, eggplants, sweet gourds, corn, and squash. With so much area to cover, watering has been difficult. Hence Goducate has bought a water pump for the farm. The farmers will repay the capital for this pump in stages. 4 wells have been dug. Each well is 6-8 ft deep and takes a day for 2 persons to dig. Water can be pumped directly from the well to the hose used for watering the vegetables.
Pumping water from wellFarmer’s son watering vegetables
In early January our music team went to several private schools to promote our music tutorial program and our music studio. The effort has ended up with a partnership with one of the schools in more than one Goducate program, and has enabled several students to earn some pocket money.
The school was Morning Star Montessori School. The school management took an interest in our tutorial program, and invited our team to demonstrate their skills in singing, playing and instrument, and teaching. Naively, we expected the school’s approval immediately after the demonstrations. Instead what we got was a promise that the school would call with its decision.
Weeks, then months, passed, and we were about to give up when we received a call in the last week of February to ask us to start a voice-coaching lesson for more than 300 elementary and high school students in 2 of the school’s campuses for a performance during the forthcoming graduation ceremony.
A team of four is now coaching at Morning Star, two at each campus. Each pair will conduct 12 sessions, with each session lasting about 2 h. The team will paid around PhP 40,000 for these lessons. In addition our Harana live-music team of eight persons, four of whom are the trainers at Morning Star, will be paid another PhP 14,000 for two separate performances in the two campuses. Of the eight who are benefitting from this arrangement, 2 are Goducate staff, and the other 6 are college or high-school students.
The School management also came to visit our office to find out more about our work. They took an interest in our Alternative Learning System (ALS) program, through which we help people who have not finished their schooling to continue with their education through the Department of Education’s ALS. They have now offered us the use of two classrooms, one in each campus. This offer will enable us to start new ALS classes.
In addition, Morning Star is also discussing with us how we can partner together to do a feeding program in some government school.
Teaching diaphraghm exercisesPractising a song for school graduation ceremony
Goducate’s aim is to help the needy help themselves. So it follows that Goducate should help itself—ie, by aiming for self-sufficiency. Thus the Goducate Training Center (GTC) in Iloilo has not only facilities for training purposes but also holiday accommodation and recreational facilities that could be let out to the public. The recreational facilities include a swimming pool, a fishing pond, a zipline, a rock-climbing wall, and a fish spa, as well as many hectares of land for walks and games.
One group that was attracted by the facilities at the GTC was schools. Initially the schools conducted their own program, paying the entrance fee and the fee for whatever facilities they used. However, from June 2013, we started to market educational tours at PhP 150 ($3.35) per head for 30-45 min talks on various aspects of agriculture and farming that Goducate trainees are taught. The topics covered include basic botany, vermiculture, hydroponics, the rice-fish model of rearing fish in rice fields, container gardening, and characteristics of farm animals. The talks are geared for different age groups. They are interactive, with students being invited to use their senses and to participate in accompanying activities. For example, they can taste the Stevia leaf (a sweetener or sugar substitute), spray vermitea (a fertilizer made from worm castings), pot up plants, or feed animals. Included in the educational tour package is a GTC souvenir of either a potted plant or a key chain.
75% of the schools visiting GTC are kindergartens and day-care centers and 25% are elementary or high schools. In the first 2 months of this year 7 elementary or high schools, and 20 groups of kindergartens and day-care centers visited GTC. One of the groups consisted of 24 day-care centers, with a total of 750 pupils. Another very recent tour catered for a mixed group of 150 parents and students ranging in age from 6-40. Of the 27 lots of visitors, 11 took up the educational package and the rest conducted their own program.
Handling African night crawlers used for making compostAfter mixing soil and pottting up plantsFeeding animals
