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Goducate moves towards video training

As Goducate continues to expand with more workers in more Asian countries, it has been very difficult to train new local staff and to upgrade the training of existing staff.

Most of Goducate‘s work is in remote rural communities, which requires many hours of travel to get there. So in the past we managed to train our staff only once or twice a year.

Better Wi-Fi coverage in rural Asia has now allowed us to do more training via video conferencing applications. Previous attempts to do video training via the Internet resulted in much frustration because of poor Wi-Fi connections in most of rural Asia.

Presently we are able to conduct video training from our headquarters in Singapore to our teams in Indonesia, Philippines, China, Kyrgyztan, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

Talking in Singapore to trainees in Philippines
Holding up an illustration for trainees to see

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With more frequent and better training our existing Goducate teams ought to have a better impact on the communities they serve.

And as Wi-Fi coverage enters more remote areas, we will be more confident about  expanding our work into remote areas because we become more certain that we can provide the necessary training to our staff.

Writer: Dr Paul Choo, Founder of Goducate
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Youths in Philippines undergo leadership training in Ultimate Youth Camp

Eighty-six youths aged 10-19 took part in the Ultimate Youth Camp held at the Goducate Training Center in Iloilo from May 17-19. The purpose of the Ultimate Youth Camp is to train youths in leadership skills.

Some of the campers came from Iloilo Province, some from Guimaras, an island province across the water from Iloilo City, and some from Bacolod, a city on the huge island of Negros, also across the water from Iloilo City. They could register in cash or in kind, in the form of vegetables, meat, or other consumable goods available to them in their community.

On the last day of the camp, 17-year-old Wilhelm Richard Gonzaga stood in front of the other campers reading out the poem he had written about how thankful he was for what he had learned from the camp. All the other testimonials given that day included expressions of sadness about having to bid goodbye to their newfound friends.

Helping the staff who ran and taught at the camp were 7 trained youth leaders and 38 counselors. The counselors, some of whom were the current batch of trainees at Goducate Training Center, had first attended a Camp Counselor’s Training course. Every counsellor was assigned some campers, with whom they spent most of their time together.

Guest writer: Carmela Damaso, Trainee GTC Iloilo
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Goducate brings its programmes to Mindanao

Goducate aims to bring its programmes to all the 42,065 barangays (villages) of the Philippines. The training team recently went to Mindanao, the second-largest island of the country, to kick off the expansion there. The goal of this trip is to form teams in different key geographical areas. These teams will in turn train others in their towns and districts.

For this trip, the training team from Iloilo held “classroom” teaching in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon; Mambajao, Camiguin; and Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte. However, the practical work was done in different barangays (villages), for trainees to apply what they had learnt.

The team equipped potential trainers in three Goducate platforms — the Health Information Drive, GoTeens Student Leadership Program, and GoBasket Philippines.

The feedback from trainees was that these programs are generally acceptable and easy to apply. They are simple enough for housewives or young people to be carry out.

At the end of the training, the trainees formed their teams and plans for the next areas that they will reach.

Guest writer: Teofy Guzon, Goducate Training Coordinator