Philippines – Page 81 – Goducate … Go And Educate!

2012-06-052012-06-08

Helping others help themselves begins at Goducate Training Center

Goducate aims to help Asians help themselves because Goducate believes
that its projects must be sustainable ones.

To ensure that this philosophy is entrenched in our culture our main training center, the Goducate Training Center in Iloilo, Philippines (where almost all Goducate’s future workers are trained) is designed to “help itself” and to be self-sustainable.

Besides the usual classrooms, dormitories and “laboratories” of a usual educational institution, GTC is designed with recreational and food and beverage (F&B) facilities to cater to visitors, especially educational tour groups from schools, universities, governmental
bodies and business corporations.

GTC has been designated as a tourism-site by the Municipality of San Miguel. Its cutting-edge agricultural projects and plots showcase modern Asian agriculture. Its agricultural faculty and students lead the edu-groups on interesting and informative tours that teach about modern, scientific, sustainable farming for the future.

After these edu-tours, visitors are invited to enjoy GTC’s recreational facilities and F&B outlets. The revenue raised from the water-park, dipping pool, zip-lines, rock-climbing, horse-riding, fishing and restaurant is used to upgrade and maintain GTC and to provide scholarships for its trainees.

Besides this source of revenue from edu-tours, GTC trainees also work
on their agricultural plots. What they grow not only provides food for themselves, but more importantly teaches them the skills of modern sustainable agriculture—skills that they will share when they go into poor communities to help needy Asians help themselves.

2012-06-01

Goducate Teacher In Laguna Goes For Voice Training

The music program in Laguna Province in The Phillipines has been very successful in getting kids off the street, in helping some get back to or continue school or college on music scholarships, in helping them earn pocket money by playing at functions or by teaching music, and in training in the students in discipline, teamwork, leadership, endurance and many other qualities.

There are about 250 students in the program now. However, musical instruments are expensive. But everybody has vocal cords. So Goducate intends to teach singing.

The first step was to send one of our music teachers, Abegael, for voice training. Abegael teaches the violin and is also a kindergarten teacher at a Goducate Learning Center. She has just completed a summer course at the University of the Philippines. Her course closed with a concert, at which she performed very well. She said, “It’s my first time to perform in a concert hall, and it is very exciting”. Her teacher has invited her back to take part in a concert in January.

maam abe — Abegael performing at the concert

2012-05-15

Goducate-trained basketball referees and table officials get their first jobs

Five of the first batch of trainees who completed the Goducate training program for basketball officials did not have to wait long to get their first jobs. And the jobs were not for matches at village level (where they had done their training), but at inter-university level. This job opportunity for out-of-school youth arose with the 10-day visit of the Indonesian Youth Team from West Java to play against eight colleges and universities in The Philippines.

The three serving as referees earned PHP300 ($ 7) each per game, and the two who were table officials received PHP200 ($4.70) each. PHP 300 is considered the daily minimum wage at provincial level. For these boys, the sums represent a great deal. For instance, Jay-R, one of the referees, had to leave college 2 years ago because of financial difficulties. His income as referee is sufficient for his personal needs. Erwin, who was unable to complete high school, became a trouble-maker in his family, but now is a trained table official.

attending to injury — Stephen attending to an injury

Apart from the thrill of landing their first jobs, the boys had another memorable experience—their 10-day stay in a hotel was the first time they had slept in an air-conditioned room.

Our basketball training program is now being introduced in other villages. We hope that through it many out-of-school youth will be able to get back to schools or colleges through sports scholarships, or to be able to earn a living.