Goducate Training Center in Iloilo, Philippines, is an 11-hectare site designed to train Goducate’s workers to help needy people to help themselves – especially in growing enough to feed themselves.
This month, Ric Patricio a well-known agriculturalist, has joined us as our full-time Agricultural Director. Ric, who received graduate training in the University of Minnesota, had a distinguished career teaching agriculture in the Central Philippine University and working in projects with the Asian Development Bank.
He has come on board to help us to improve our agricultural development in GTC and to improve the agricultural training of our trainees. His wife, Hope who is a soil expert, has been one of our agricultural lecturers.
Ric Patricio speaking at GTCGiant delicious "sword bean" from GTCGrowing hot-peppers at GTC
Goducate Training Center in Iloilio, The Philippines, continues being developed even as its pioneer batch of trainees undergo training.
As soon as the basic infrastructure (Phase 1A) was completed in April 2011, the pioneer batch of trainees began their training.
Since then, work has been going on on students’ dormitories and staff quarters. The target date for completion of these projects was this month. However, unusually heavy rains hampered construction work over the past 2 months and caused erosion problems in our impounding pond and some slopes around the site.
The typhoon season continues to bring in much rain, but we hope that the dormitories and staff house will be completed in 2 months’ time. After the rainy season is over, the main roads will be concreted.
We hope to be ready to take in a larger batch of about 50 students in 2012 and train them to help the poor to help themselves
The three new student dormitoriesFaculty housing complex
Last Saturday saw another session of the ieatishootipost blogging community’s eating for a good cause—ie, for Goducate learning (literacy) centres in Sabah. The community has pledged to collect for 100 learning centres. At present, there are 17 Goducate centres serving some 2000 students.
The fabulous 5-course lunch was held at Privé Restaurant, situated on Singapore’s only private island. The event was an educational session as well, with Catherine Chan from Iconiq Image teaching about table etiquette, and Clinton Ang from Cornerstone Wines teaching wine appreciation. We learnt from Catherine tips such as how far to sit from the table, how to pass the bread basket round (anticlockwise), how to scoop up soup (towards the 12 o’clock position of the plate), and how to stir tea or coffee (silently in figure-of-eight motion). Clinton had us swirling, sniffing at, and listening to the wine. The men also learnt that they are not supposed to hold the wine glass by the stem but by the base—which is not at all convenient since both hands are needed to get the glass off the table first.
Goducate would like to thank the diners who bought tickets for the event, the ieatishootipost community for organizing the event, and all the sponsors of the event (Privé, Iconiq Image, Cornerstone Wines, Fresh Gourmet, Nuffnang, and MHC Asia) for their generosity. $30,000 was collected for the Sabah learning centres that day.
menuDr Leslie Tay of ieatishootipost introducing Catherine from IconiQimageView from Privé restaurant
