Goducate’s philosophy is to “help needy Asians help themselves” by Going and Educating them—and then encouraging them to help others with what they’ve learned. We believe that this is better than just giving them something or some help.
However, there are certain circumstances in which we have to provide help that is not educational or help that they can then use to help others. For example, in emergencies timely help is often more appropriate then education. If a person is starving because of a flood, it’s more appropriate to feed him first before attempting to teach him how to produce more crops from his farm.
In our work with needy communities, we’ve often found that we need to rectify medical and dental problems before we can move on to “go and educate” them how to help themselves, and then help others. In some of the communities that we work in (eg, Sabah) the majority of people have never ever seen a doctor or a dentist. Chronic debilitating illnesses and rotting teeth are part of their lives. Someone with a toothache (without Panadols or Aspirins) is not able to learn anything effectively.
When we first sent in a dental team to Sabah, we ran out of local anesthetic on the first day of our work because hundreds of people came—with many requesting to have all their teeth (rotten or good) pulled out. While the dentists were at work, they realized that many of their patients also had medical and surgical problems that needed urgent treatment, but they lacked the medicines and surgical instruments needed to help them. Future teams will include general surgeons.
We are grateful for a dedicated team of volunteer dentists, doctors, and surgeons from Iloilo, Philippines, who offer their skills regularly to help the needy.
A kind sponsor of Goducate, Kenneth Aw, through his company KSurgical Pte Ltd, has also given us the dental and surgical instruments needed for our work.
