Part of the training we provide to the needy Cambodians at the Goducate Children’s Home include farming and agriculture. Four months ago, an experimental organic piggery was started with the purchase of 18 small piglets to be reared on organic feed. The piggery was a good success as the pigs have since grown fat and healthy.
The boys at the Home took turns daily to chop and prepare organic feed for the pigs. A few weeks ago, a few pigs were slaughtered and eaten at special celebrations at the Home.
The organic pigsChopping and preparing organic feed for the the pigs
“1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8…” , the voices of the children rang through the air, counting to the rhythm of tooth brushing.
In Dec 2012, a team of us from Singapore conducted hygiene workshops for the children of Goducate Cambodia. Oral hygiene was one key segment. We know the kids have toothbrushes, but are they brushing correctly?
Our youths, using pictorials, explained about tooth decay—-what is it, how it happens. Then came the brushing. With a plastic tooth model, the team demonstrated the proper tooth-brushing method, highlighting the importance of brushing up-down, inside, and the tongue.
We then got the children into practical action. On the tooth model, they showed how they would brush the teeth, while the rest counted and corrected them if it was not properly done. Some brushed with such vigor it looked more like toilet scrubbing!
The tooth model turned out to be a real hit with the kids. Those who had earlier indicated that they did not like tooth brushing were all excited to brush the giant teeth.
Overall, we all had great fun learning together. Hopefully, the enthusiasm will lead on to good oral habits, and each child will joyfully beam with sparkling pearlies for life!
Plastic model of mouth and teeth“This is the way I should brush my teeth”
When the women in Laguna making decorative items out of scrap paper strips received an order for 1000 pieces of their handicraft from a shop in San Pablo City a couple of months ago, it was seen as a huge step forward for them. They have had another boost with the recent festive season. A gift shop in Divisoria Manila, a market district in Manila, placed an order for 20,000 pieces.
To meet this order a Goducate Literacy Center was turned into a temporary stockroom and workshop for a week, during which classes for the children were held in the open. The women who worked at the center were victims of Typhoon Hagabat, whom Goducate has been helping.
Women from the local community who had been taught earlier how to make these decorative items worked from home. When I saw the little daughter of one of these women come to the center to collect material for her mother, it occurred to me that this project is also teaching little children how to help their parents in a simple way.
A new project that has been started is a tailoring project. A Goducate volunteer who used to be a dressmaker was asked by a ready-to-wear store to supply blouses for a school uniform. She decided to take this opportunity to give other women in the community a chance to earn a living and has started to teach some women how to sew. The project is hampered by the limited number and type of sewing machines they have. Thus only three women, one of them an experienced dressmaker, are sewing the blouses, and they can undertake to deliver only 86 pieces a week.
Vcitims of Monsoon Hagabat making decorative itemsLittle girl picking material from stockroom for her motherMaking blouses for school uniform
