Goducate … Go And Educate! – Page 136 – Helping Asians Help Themselves

2012-08-172012-08-18

Team goes to Philippines to take photographs for Goducate book

Last year, Goducate published a book of articles by the children living at the Goducate Children’s Home in Cambodia. The pieces in “In The Shoes of a Cambodian Child” give an insight into what goes on in the minds and hearts of children from dysfunctional families and how their experiences have affected them.

This year Goducate will be producing a collection of articles by some of the needy children being served by Goducate in The Philippines. Unlike the children at the Goducate Children’s Home, the Filipino children are living in the community with their families, though not necessarily happy ones, nor their immediate ones. As is well known, many Filipinos go abroad to work, leaving their children behind in the care of others. Thus “In The Shoes of a Filipino Child” will also feature stories of emotional hardship as well as physical hardship. But there will also be stories of what makes them happy, and it is touching to read of what simple things are enough to bring them a little bit of joy in life. We hope that the stories by these children will create awareness among those who are comfortably off about how much poverty there is in the world around them.

For the coming book, a team from Goducate went to get photographs of the children who have contributed to the book. Our timing was bad. It rained very heavily nearly all of the three days that we were there. Manila was especially badly affected by one of the most serious floodings in decades, and there were 60 deaths from the rains reported while we were there. Although we were about an hour’s drive away from Manila, some of the villages and homes we had to visit were also flooded. Seeing people in their homes cooking a meal while standing more than ankle-deep in water as though it was the most natural thing to do made us realize how frequently they have to go through these hardships. However, at least they had electric lights at night, unlike those families relocated after their homes in Manila were destroyed by Typhoon Ondoy in 2009. Those families in the relocation area are still waiting for electricity, and one of the children has written of the hardship of not having any light to work by at night.

P1020368 — Our photographer Annabel at work during one of the very few dry spells

P8071032 — Our team having to wade in muddy water to get our photographs

2012-08-142012-08-07

Students in Goducate Literacy Centers in Sabah get to know a world of competition

Goducate believes that learning should not be confined to the classroom. Here in the literacy centers in Sabah, despite our limited resources, skills, and manpower, we try our best to organize extra-curricular activities and competitions, to encourage the children to be active learners, to give the teachers the chance to enhance their creativity, and to build harmonious relationships with the local community.

For our 2nd English Week Celebration each center was free to arrange itss own program of group and individual presentations, interpretative reading contests for intermediate level students, spelling contests for levels 2 and 3, and a poem contest for level 1. Some centers also included cultural and modern dances as their special intermission numbers. At every center, the whole community, especially the students’ parents and relatives, got involved.

The plan to draw all the winners from each literacy center to compete for the finals at the main center probably contributed to the enthusiasm and excitement. But first we gathered all the teachers together to let them understand that the event should teach students and parents healthy competition and good sportsmanship.

What really amazed me most was to see the transformation in a little pupil, who during class would be sitting on the floor very quietly. During the competition, wearing shoes for the first time, he stood confidently and performed his best in front of many people. When he received much applause while holding a trophy and wearing a medal, I’m sure that this kid realized that there is a world outside his own village that he could enter and succeed in. This realization should help him to dream more and even to dream big.

Finals spelling contest level 2 — Finals of spelling contest level 2

The world that lies ahead for this generation of children is likely to be more competitive than the one we are in today. The children being served by the Goducate literacy centers in Sabah are at a particular disadvantage because they do not have access to state education. We hope that the little that we can offer them will be able to give them a chance to compete in the outside world.

2012-08-102012-08-07

Cambodian Children’s Home musicians shine at end-of-school year ceremony

Although a handful of the children at the Cambodian Children’s Home had picked up how to play a musical instrument, such as the guitar, the recorder, or the keyboard, it was only earlier this year that an intensive music program was introduced at the Home. Three of the musicians from the Goducate music program in the Philippines spent 10 days at the Cambodian Children’s Home giving intensive lessons in the recorder, keyboard, violin, and flute. Two months later, the children had a couple of days of violin and masterclass training from a visitor from Singapore before they performed at the opening of the boys’ workshop at the Home.

The end of the 2011-2012 school year presented another opportunity for the students to give a musical performance. This ceremony was much bigger and more formal than the opening of the workshop, and held away from the Home, so tension among the children was high, reaching a peak about an hour before the start of the ceremony. However, once they started on their performances they calmed down and played naturally, seemingly oblivious to what was going on around them.