Goducate in Laguna now has 40 students, mostly mothers, registered in its Alternative Learning System (ALS) program. The group consists of 31 mothers, 4 fathers, and 6 youths. One of the fathers is also learning farming at the Goduate model farm. Some of the youths who were attending the program at the start of the year have now gone back to high school.
The ALS is a Philippines Department of Education ladderized, modular, non-formal education program for those who for whatever reason have not completed their school education. There are uniform lesson modules for all academic subjects, and there are two levels—elementary and secondary (high school).
The classes are held twice weekly at the new Goducate office in Laguna, though not all the students are able to attend regularly. In October all the students will be sitting for their exams, 5 at elementary level and 35 at secondary. Naturally all are hoping to pass, but more importantly all believe that an education will help them in their daily lives.
Listening to the teachersDoing review papers—the two in the bottom left-corner are a husband and wife who will be sitting for the elementary level exam.
On July 19, Goducate’s Global LifeSkills Center (formerly known as the Global Life Hub) in Hyderabad, India, held a special full-day program called “Meet America”. Learning about global life in a classroom cannot match the experience of mixing with foreigners. And it is rarely that university students in India get an opportunity to mix with foreigners, even though they do come across some on the streets.
Exposure to the international world is vital for students’ development and for their career prospects. For those who might have a chance to go abroad for further studies or to work, such exposure during their undergraduate days will ease their adjustment to life abroad. With this in mind, we invited a group of 10 Americans from different professions to spend a day with our members. These Americans happened to be visiting Hyderabad.
Half the day was spent at the Center, and the evening we went to the park. The “Meet America” day gave our members had a Great opportunity to chat, eat, and play with the Americans and to learn about their lifestyles, cultures, and tradition.
After the visitors left, our members told us how they never imagined that they would meet foreigners who would be so friendly towards them and would answer all questions they had about the USA .
Answering questions at the CenterGames time at the park
More than 250 women in East Java attended the training on Moringa and container gardening conducted a couple of weeks ago by Goducate agricultural consultants from the Philippines. The lectures were held in the morning, and all hands-on activities were done in the afternoon of the same day. Most of the attendees were from Kota Kediri, whereas the rest came from six other towns in East Java.
Like many Indonesians who had attended past agriculture trainings held by Goducate, it was the first time that the majority of the participants learnt of Moringa as God’s Miracle Tree. While some had heard about container gardening as a means of using recycled materials for growing vegetables, most were unfamiliar about companion planting, site selection, crop-care activities, and proper harvesting.
The participants were very appreciative when shown how to prepare a healthy tea drink by combining 1 cup of Moringa leaves, 1 cup of lemon grass, and 1 cup of ginger in 4 cups of water, then bringing them to a boil and simmering the concoction for only 2 minutes. They were also impressed by the simplicity of preparing Moringa capsules manually with the use of a capsule-filler device. One highlight was the cooking demonstration on Philippine chicken tinola with Moringa leaves. Although the participants found it odd to think of Moringa as a leaf vegetable, they liked the taste of the soup and the native chicken.
Those who joined the container-gardening hands-on session learned how to prepare the ideal soil medium containing a ratio of 1:1:1 rice husk, garden soil, and compost, respectively. They also learned about the preliminaries involved in the planting of small and big seeds and how to ensure the growing of pesticide-free vegetables.
Having Moringa in the backyard or in a container garden is a low-cost, low-tech, high-impact strategy for improving the health and nourishment of people in needy communities. Goducate hopes to be able to introduce this strategy to many other needy communities.
Lecture on Moringa production, processing, and utilizationContainer-gardening demonstration
