Goducate … Go And Educate! – Page 158 – Helping Asians Help Themselves

2011-12-302011-12-30

Goducate’s 5 levels of helping the needy

Many people have the heart to help the needy.

We at Goducate are thankful for all such people!

However, there are different levels of help and we at Goducate have defined 5 levels:

1. Happy — The first level of help is to make someone happy (eg. give a toy, a pair of shoes). This type of help is appropriate for newcomers because it involves little commitment and no skills. However, the benefit to the recipient is often only a short period of happiness.

20111122185222589 — happiness is a pair of shoes

2. Help — This is the second level of help that requires more commitment and some skills (eg. teaching how to speak English, teaching to play a musical instrument). Most people who offer such help do so for a short period of time (say, a week). The recipient has been informed/ instructed but is usually unable to master the skill in this short period of time. Therefore, the benefit from such help is often short-lived.

3, Hand-holding — This is the third level of help, which requires a much greater level of commitment of time. The teacher/instructor not only teaches the recipient but continues to “hold his hands” until the recipient masters the subject (eg. English phrases, guitar chords). In other words, the helper is not just satisfied with merely transmitting the information but is also concerned that the recipient “gets it” and is able to confidently do “something useful” with it.

20111122185216898 — I can now sew my own clothes

4. Hand-over — This fourth level of help requires the helper to understand the importance of giving the others enough self-esteem so that the recipient is not perpetually dependent on help from outsiders. For example, the guitar student is told that he is now ready to take over as the new teacher. In other words, the task of teaching guitar chords is now handed over to him. The “helpless person” is empowered to be a “helper.”

5. Hand-over, hand-over — The fifth level of help is when the newly trained teacher clearly understands that his task is to train another layer and hand-over to the new layer not only skills and but also an understanding of the importance os sequential handing over from layer to layer. When this 5th level of help is in place, then a sustainable work has been implemented. Without this 5th level of help, most projects will soon fizzle out.

20111122143715823 — I can train many others to teach literacy

Goducate aims to implement projects that incorporate all 5 levels of help.

Goducate aims to help needy Asians help themselves in a sustainable way

2011-12-272011-12-27

Goducate musicians help others

Goducate’s mission is to help the needy help themselves. But we would also like them to give to other needy people what they themselves have received in the way of teaching, training, and mentoring. In this way a movement is created, so that each group of beneficiaries can become leaders who go on to transform the lives of others in need.

Many of the youth in Laguna who have benefited from the Goducate music program are spending much of their free time training newer music students. Some train students in their own town or village, but some travel a distance to do so.

Take 14-year-old Matthew, for instance. He walks 3 km on Saturday afternoons to Mabakan area to teach 4 students the violin on a voluntary basis. However, sometimes the mothers pool together to give him PHP150 ($3.40). When Channel News Asia was there filming the Goducate students for part 2 of Once Upon A Village, a program that will be aired in the next month or two, he was asked, “What is your goal for your students?” He replied, “For them to use the talent I share in pursuing their dreams and ambitions in life; like the hope I’m seeing after I finish high school (to get into a college school). I want them also to go abroad like me and experience the life in some other countries”. He was referring to the 10 days of training he had in Singapore, for which he was selected during the filming of part 1 of Once Upon a Village early this year.

PC160309-400 — Matthew's students walking to the learning center

PC171405-400 — Melissa with her students

Another example is Melissa, also 14, who also used to go by bus to Talahiban to train some students, but since her family moved there, she has more time to spend on teaching. She has 8 violin students, and 5 who are learning the recorder, but who hope to progress to some other instrument later on. The students are so eager to learn that they are often still at the learning center at 10 pm.

2011-12-232018-09-23

Goducate Children’s Home in Cambodia to get proper workshop for vocational training

The Goducate Children’s Home in Prey Nob, Cambodia, has been providing vocational training informally to the children there to enable them to acquire livelihood skills that they can use when they leave the Home eventually.

However, we are planning to make the training more systematic. Towards this end, a training workshop facility is planned for next year. This facility will provide vocational and technical training in areas such as welding, electrical work, motor-vehicle repair and servicing, and possibly carpentry.

The Goducate Children’s Home currently also provides training in other areas such as agriculture, aquaculture, poultry farming, etc. It is likely to expand into animal husbandry next year.

The children also pursue academic study in subjects such as English, mathematics, science, social studies, Khmer language, etc.