The musicians in the Goducate music program in Laguna have been trained to help themselves. Some have gained music scholarships to enable them to continue their education in high school or college, those in the orchestra earn some income by playing at local events, and others earn money by giving private music lessons. The musicians also help others. The more accomplished musicians are volunteer music teachers for newcomers to the program. At the end of last year the orchestra also staged a concert to raise money to pay for the school fees for several of their members.
About a week ago, on Dec 23, members of the orchestra raised funds for victims of Typhoon Bopha, known locally as Typhoon Pablo. This “supertyphoon” was the strongest tropical cyclone ever to hit the southern Philippines island of Mindanao.
Goducate Laguna has been helping the victims of Typhoon Hagabat, which affected people in Bay, in Laguna Province. Goducate has been training some of the victims of Typhoon Hagabat in livelihood skills. The men have been taught agricultural techniques and offered some work at the Goducate Model Farm in Laguna, while the women have been taught how to make soap and other handicraft.
Mindanao is nowhere near Laguna. However, it so happened that just before Typhoon Bopha struck, Goducate Laguna had been visited by some friends from Compostela Valley, one of the areas affected by Typhoon Bopha. Hence the orchestra decided to raise funds to help the victims of that typhoon. The rather impromptu “mini-concert” that the orchestra put up, mostly of Christmas songs, was held in the open, at the entrance to the building in which the Goducate Music Studio is sited, and a small sum was raised from passers-by.
