Philippines – Page 59 – Goducate … Go And Educate!

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Typhoon Yolanda Report 1

Goducate Training Center (GTC) is situated in Iloilo.

Thankfully, Typhoon Yolanda (aka Haiyan) veered north as it neared Iloilo and GTC was spared from the full impact of Yolanda. GTC only suffered minor damage and the loss of a few trees.

Immediately after Yolanda passed, our Disaster Relief Task Force swung into action. Our team has helped in other disasters but Yolanda’s destruction surpasses them all. In our previous major relief effort in eastern Mindanao caused by Super Typhoon Bopha (aka Pablo) last year our team reported “indescribable damage”. This time the same team reported that the damage is much worse!

We realize that we have to be wise in our relief efforts so that we do not waste our limited human and financial resources. Our usual strategy is to bring “immediate relief” in the first few weeks of our operations. Bottled water and ready-to-eat food is vital for those who have not had any food or drink for a few days. This is akin to setting up an IV drip for a dying patient. In our emergency-provisions are also other necessities (eg. matches, candles, canned food). Nails and fasteners are also very useful because many houses have lost their roofs and the rains continue after the typhoon has passed. With these nails they are able to use bits of wood to provide some shelter from the rain.

In our teams are trained nurses to provide first-aid to those who have suffered from falling and flying debris and provide medications for those who are sick from exposure and lack of food. We try to focus our efforts on places that are easier to reach from GTC so that we can be maximally effective and minimize costs of travel. This means that we will focus on northern Panay. We also focus our efforts on places where we have “contacts” so that eventual follow-up work will be more
effective.

Though we focus on northern Panay, we will also try to help those who are most affected by Yolanda, namely, Tacloban (Leyte). Today our team leader left Iloilo for Tacloban to survey the area and to meet our contacts there and to assess how we can help.

We must plan for this relief effort as if it is a long-distance race. After we’ve helped people to survive with food, water and medicines, we must help them to “get back” by rebuilding their houses, replanting their crops, etc. This is the difficult part of relief work that most organizations shun but this is where Goducate’s philosophy of “helping needy Asians help themselves” will be most useful.

Tent under which family spent the nights after their home was damaged

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Students from Goducate Literacy Centers in Laguna learn about unity in diversity

Donned in different traditional costumes of Japan, India, the Philippines, China, and the USA, the pupils of the Goducate Learning Centers in Laguna, along with their parents and teachers, took to the stage at the Goducate Studio on Oct 18 to celebrate United Nations Month (October). Altogether some 90 pupils, teachers, and parents attended the event.

In their colorful kimonos, the group from the Goducate Literacy Center in Maitim sang Kira Kira Hikaru, the Japanese version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. This item was followed by Chinese and Hawaiian dances performed by Ulik literacy center and Tranca literacy center, respectively. Also putting up a good show were the kids and mothers from Talahiban literacy center and Sitio 74 literacy center, representing India and the Philippines, respectively. Wearing Indian and Muslim-inspired attire, the former performed a fast-beat Indian dance while the latter group, in their traditional Filipino get-up, belted out a patriotic song called “Ang Bayan kong Pilipinas”.

The take-home message from the day’s event was not about the talents of the pupils at the Goducate Literacy Centers, but about the theme for this year’s United Nations Month, which was “Unity for Every Nation”. The spirit of cooperation between the mothers, teachers, and volunteers from the different centers that went into the preparation and staging of the day’s event exemplified the theme well.

To convey the message of the theme to the little ones and parents, the guest speaker told a story about unity in diversity. At first, the guest speaker showed faces of different nationalities. Then she pointed out that despite differences in skin color, all are united by goals and values in life.

Little "Chinese" and "Japanese" girls — Little “Chinese” and “Japanese” girls

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Goducate trainees learn how to use jokes and magic tricks to engage the community

When the trainees at the Goducate Training Center in Iloilo, Philippines, graduate and are sent out as community development workers, they need to be able to quickly establish rapport with the members of the community, and they need to be able to think out of the box when they encounter an unfamiliar situation. To help the trainees acquire such skills, they were put through a week of extremely unusual training that involved learning to tell jokes and to do magic tricks.

The trainer for this course was Dr Low Lee Yong, founder and chief executive officer of MHC Asia, which is Goducate’s largest corporate sponsor. Dr Low came from a very humble background and struggled against all odds to achieve his dreams of doing medicine. After a short spell as a general practitioner, he started MHC Asia, a third-party administrator which now links over 1000 clinics in Singapore and which has won many entrepreneurship awards. Early this year Dr Low published his autobiography, I Dare to Dream. He has become a much-sought-after motivational speaker, who keeps his audience engaged with his informal, jocular style of delivering his message.

At the Goducate Training Center, Dr Low inspired the future community development workers to dream big through the sharing of his life experiences growing up in a poor village. His humble beginnings also drove home to the trainees that there is hope for the children in the poor communities they serve. His training sessions were practical and productive. He shared practical tips on public speaking and gave the trainees opportunities to speak.

Joke time was rather challenging for most of the trainees because they were unused to jokes about other cultures, and also because they did not grasp some of the jokes. However, they learnt how jokes can be used to emphasize major points. What the trainees also found very interesting were those bridge-building activities to engage people over a meal. For example, they learnt how to make paper roses with tissue paper, how to balance a coke can on its rim, and how to do magic tricks using easily available items such as coins,notes, name cards etc.

When Dr Low went along to the villages where the trainees do their community work, they saw how his fun-loving approach helped to build up rapport with the community.

On the last day of Dr Low’s stay at the Goducate Training Center the trainees were broken up into teams to compete in all that they had learnt from him. We hope that this little course will result in community development workers who can attract, talk, and inspire anyone in any crowd.

Trainees with their bouquets made from tissue paper

Trying to balance a tilted can on its rim