Goducate … Go And Educate! – Page 109 – Helping Asians Help Themselves

2013-05-282018-09-23

Sing Your English Camp in Sumatra was a big hit with campers

“It’s All About Me!” was the theme of Goducate’s Sing Your English (SYE) one-day camp held on May 25th in Pekanbaru, Sumatra. This SYE’s first one-day camp attracted almost 300 Indonesian campers, who were grouped into 6 teams—namely, Blue Eagles, Red Lions, Green Dragons, Yellow Sharks, Purple Pandas, and Orange Foxes. The electricity cut in the morning did not stop proceedings.

The aim of SYE camps is to create an environment wherein the campers enjoy reading, using, singing, and speaking English and where they have a memorable time bonding with friends. SYE is program for teaching English in fun ways and through many interesting and character-molding activities; for eliminating the fear of speaking English; and for creating a desire in campers to learn English, dream big, and believe that they can accomplish whatever they aspire to achieve.

These aims were accomplished through different camp activities. Some of the activities that were big hits among the campers were the Cheers & Yells Competition, during which each team performed with painted faces and props that included pompoms flags; the Traditional Song & Dance Competition; the SYE Awesome Race, which was a combination of a Treasure Hunt and an “Amazing Race”; and the Big- Ball Volleyball, which campers enjoyed since it was their first time playing with this game. At the end of the camp, each camper was able to use the accumulated points they got from the different competitions and activities to “buy” items from the camp store.

The campers are looking forward to more SYE camps. One of the parents commented, “This is so far the best strategy for learning English. Learning English through songs is so much fun & motivating!”

Guest writer Jenet, Volunteer from Philippines

2013-05-242013-05-25

Goducate surveys Vietnam

Last week two of us from Goducate Headquarters surveyed the possibility of starting a work in Vietnam.

Six years ago, I went to Vietnam to study the potential of sending English teachers to Vietnam. At that time I felt that Vietnam was not quite ready to aggressively promote the use of the English language. However, on this trip I sensed an urgency to make Vietnam an English- speaking nation.

The professor I met six years ago in Hanoi is now the person in charge of a national program to make Vietnam an English-speaking nation by the year 2020. When we met in Danang (Central Vietnam) last week, he shared with us the government’s plan. Much thinking has gone into this plan and substantial funds are already allocated for this project. However, one of the bottle-necks in this plan is the availability of sufficient numbers of foreign English teachers.

Thankfully, Goducate Training Center (GTC) in Iloilo, Philippines, continues to train English teachers who are willing to serve wherever there is a need. My hope is that GTC graduates will be able to help Vietnam to achieve their English-speaking goal. We hope to send our first pilot group of 5 teachers to Danang by September. They will undergo training in Vietnamese culture and language before proceeding to teach in Vietnamese high schools.

Danang, Vietnam’s third largest city, has been chosen to be our “base” because it is less expensive and crowded than the two larger cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Danang is a lovely sea-side city with wide streets, clear blue skies and many energetic young Vietnamese who desire to learn English.

Eager Vietnamese students learning English

Danang---beautiful beaches and clear blue skies — Danang—beautiful beaches and clear blue skies

2013-05-212013-05-23

Potential for food security at Goducate Children’s Home in Cambodia

I visited the Goducate Children’s Home in Cambodia again recently to see what new strategies could be applied to significantly improve food sufficiency for the children and staff at the Home. One of these focuses on rice production at two separate lowland parcels with an aggregate area of 0.8 hectare.

The past attempts in growing rice at the Home led to yields that were dismally low because of poor technology, low level of inputs, and inadequate crop-care activities. With an improved system of rice intensification, outputs can be expected to more than meet the daily staple need of all the residents at the Home for a year.

Hybrid rice is highly recommended because of its superior yield compared with that of inbred varieties. However, if it is not available in Cambodia, a local high-yield variety and preferably certified seeds should be used. Instead of the transplanting method of crop establishment, however, direct seeding should be practiced to save on labor requirements. This will also enable the adoption of an annual rice/rice/upland-crop pattern in the area—a pattern of growing an upland crop after two crops of rice, instead of letting the land lie fallow.

Another recommendation is the raising of Pangasius at one of the vacant fishponds. A riverine catfish found in the Mekong River, Pangasius is a fast-growing species that is excellent for fillet, soup, and broiling. It starts life as an omnivore, but after losing its teeth at 6 months it becomes mostly herbivorous. It can, therefore, thrive on kangkong (a semi-aquatic water plant also known as “water spinach”), sweet potato, and duckweed diets. Under ideal conditions, it can reach a length of 4 feet after 18 months. In Cambodia, the fingerlings can be sourced from fishponds in Phnom Penh.

Duck raising is one other option. A start-up involving 100 month-old ducks can supply the egg needs of Home, starting at 20 weeks of age (average of 285 eggs per bird per year). The excess eggs can be hatched into ducklings.

Other recommendations would be to expand the area planted with Moringa, a plant that can provide many nutrients; to plant sugar cane, because the juice is needed for fermenting animal feeds and brewing vermitea (a liquid fertilizer prepared from compost produced by earthworms); and the establishment of an orchard on the 0.75 hectare idle lot.

Apart from schoolwork, the children at the Home are already involved in agricultural and other livelihood projects, so although these options would widen the skills that they can acquire and increase food sufficiency, resource constraints would limit how the recommendations can be implemented. A step-by-step approach is the most realistic.

The 0.75-hectare idle lot with orchard-growing potential

One of the two lowland parcels suitable for rice growing