Category: Philippines

Goducate musicians spent the Christmas period raising funds for others. One event was their “concert for a cause”. Taking part in the concert was also a choir of elementary school students who had been a part of our feeding program. The aim of the concert was to raise funds, half for the relief work that Goducate is doing for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in northern Panay, and half for the orchestra’s upcoming activities.

The benefit concert, which lasted for about two hours, entertained the audience with Christmas carols and popular Filipino songs.

The event, held at the Goducate Music Studio, was attended by over a hundred people and raised PHP 8929 ($200).

Another fund-raising effort was made by those Goducate musicians who are college students on Goducate bursaries. Armed with their voices and musical instruments, they went carolling for 3 nights. They used the PHP 3645 ($85) that they raised to buy gifts for the needy. Some of these gifts of food and fruit were distributed to needy patients at a government hospital, and some to widows attending a Christmas party in a nearby community. The patients responded to the serenading with carols and the gifts with big smiles and some teary eyes.

These fund-raising events indicate that Goducate musicians have embraced the core philosophy of Goducate, which is to help Asians help themselves and then to help others.

Goducate believes that backyard gardening is very helpful for poor communities. It gives them a steady supply of food, and the money saved on the vegetables they grow can then be used for something else. And if they plant a variety of vegetables, they can get a supply not just of fibre and vitamins, but also of proteins as well. Good compost is essential for good crops. When African night crawler worms are left to feed on a suitable mixture of vegetable material, they produce such compost.

The trainees at the Goducate Training Center get their practical training in the neighboring villages. They have started a vermicomposting project, whereby one household in each village is given a quantity of worms to start making the compost. Once vermicompost has been made in that pilot household, the trainees will encourage the neighbors to embark on vermicomposting as well. The worms multiply fast (they can double in quantity in a month), so a household can soon be passing on worms to other households. When most of the households are able to make vermicompost, Goducate will introduce organic farming across the communities.

So far the project has been started in 3 villages, in some of which several households are already doing vermicomposting.