Goducate … Go And Educate! – Page 142 – Helping Asians Help Themselves

2012-06-152012-06-14

Boys’ workshop at Cambodia Goducate Children’s Home

Last week, two of our directors from Goducate HQ officially opened the boys’ workshop facility at the Goducate Children’s Home in Prey Nob, Cambodia. The ribbon cutting was followed by the planting of 3 mango trees outside the workshop.

Speech by Goducate director Victor Yeo at the official opening ceremony

ribbon cutting by directors Victor Yeo and Leong Lick Tien (with wife Mrs Leong and the Home Administrator Noe)

The official opening was also attended by 9 other Singaporeans and all the children and staff at the Home. The construction of the boys’ workshop facility commenced two months ago with funds from a generous sponsor, and with the completion of its first phase, the older boys at the Home now have the opportunity to be taught useful skills such as automobile repair, electrical installation works, welding, carpentry, etc.

IMG_4279ab — welding (left); repairs on the van (right)

Training has already commenced with one trainer, Ronnie, seen above explaining the various uses of the tools procured for the workshop. Another trainer, Will, will be added to the staff strength at the Home some time in August to help train more boys.

2012-06-122012-06-12

Goducate’s “Sing Your English” in Indonesia

Students in Indonesia learn English from their kindergarten years right up to university level, but end up unable to speak fluently because the language is not used outside of the classroom. Batam is an Indonesian island that has become an industrial zone, with many foreign companies operating there, and a reasonable command of English is important for job prospects there. We have been helping children in some schools in Batam with extracurricular English lessons, to give them a chance of competing for jobs at the same level as students from better schools or those who can afford tuition in the language.

We have found that teaching through singing is a promising method. At first, songs were used to break the children’s inhibition, to get them out of their shell, and to set a fun mood for the class. Later, songs became more than just a mood-setter; it was used to convey the lesson and the words to be used for the day. We found that the children learned the English songs very fast even without understanding them at first. They enjoyed singing and could remember all the words of the song better than all lessons taught conventionally. So this gave birth to the plan to develop a curriculum to help Indonesian students learn English through songs and other activities. That is how we began started working on Sing Your English.

Snapshot_20110927_3 — Students working on a writing activity

The lyrics to complement first-level lessons have been written and the music for these 24 songs has been commissioned. Sing Your English should be a complete extra-curricular English program that can be used in any Indonesian school to complement their English program.

2012-06-08

Goducate trainees finish first module of their course

On May 25 the Goducate Training Center celebrated the completion of the first training module taken by its first batch of full-time trainee community development worker (CDW).

These 33 trainees, from Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia and China, had
undergone a rigorous 2-month program in agriculture, teaching methods, literacy teaching, counseling, etc. Before they took a well-deserved one-week break before returning to finish the remaining 6 months of their course, they presented a Culminating Program to showcase what they had learnt.

The guests included officials from San Miguel town (the town in which GTC is situated), parents of the trainees, and supporters of Goducate.

To me the highlight of their presentation was the ability of the trainees to work across cultures, to produce creative items, and to express themselves articulately. The master of ceremonies for the day was an Indonesian trainee who spoke confidently in English. Having known him before he came to GTC, I was amazed how much had changed in a mere 2 months. The Chinese and Cambodian trainees also comfortably fitted into their English-speaking roles. Filipino trainees spoke in accent-perfect (almost!) Mandarin and Khmer (Cambodian) in preparation for future work in China and Cambodia.

After watching them, I was confident that they had the potential to be effective CDWs — who could enter needy communities to help them to help themselves.