Goducate … Go And Educate! – Page 33 – Helping Asians Help Themselves

2017-06-022018-04-25

Goducate sponsor in Singapore visits Goducate Laguna

MHC Asia is a big Goducate sponsor. In mid-May 13 people from MHC in Singapore visited Goducate Laguna to see some of the work being done there.

At Tagumpay village they saw Goducate’s Health Information Drive being conducted, as well as Goducate’s music program. In Bay, they visited the prison to see Goducate’s Restoration Program. And later they visited the Goducate Farm, where they enjoyed learning about vermiculture and the growing of organic vegetables.

In the evening we prepared a simple program for the guests at the Goducate Training Center in Puy-puy. The children from the music program and the Goducate scholars were invited, about 50 in all. They rendered a song. And Dr Low Lee Yong, Chief Executive Officer of MHC Asia, gave an inspirational talk on the importance of education. Dr. Low also surprised the 35 children from the music program with a gift of school supplies.

Children queueing up for gift of school supplies — Children queuing up for gift of school supplies

2017-05-192017-07-03

Goducate workers from Philippines attend addiction-recovery training in Singapore

By Vi

After 5 days of leadership training (see blog May 5), Goducate workers from the Philippines stayed on in Singapore for 3 days for a workshop on addiction recovery. They were joined by 2 Singaporean Goducate volunteers.

The addiction-recovery training was not targeted at any particular type of addiction, though at the moment the focus in the Philippines is on drug addiction. Over there, the government under President Rodrigo Duterte has made it compulsory for drug addicts and pushers to surrender to the authorities.

The surrenderees report weekly to the police stations, and Goducate has been invited to help with the rehabilitation of these people in Laguna. There are some 68,000 surrenderees in this province. The Goducate team has been seeing 350-400 of them every week.

The training was conducted by Val Gonzales, an experienced counsellor in the USA and now dean of the School of Counselling at the Singapore Bible College. The Goducate team from Laguna learnt much about how to handle the drug surrenderees. One of their first jobs will be to recruit people to the team and pass on the skills they learnt to these new members.

Trainees with certificates of completion of workshop

2017-05-052017-05-24

Goducate workers from Philippines and Indonesia attend leadership training in Singapore

11 Goducate workers from the Philippines and 3 from Indonesia attended an intensive 5-day training course (April 25-30) in leadership at the Goducate headquarters in Singapore. They were joined by 7 Singaporean Goducate volunteers.

The trainer, Jerome Joseph, an experienced human resources consultant and coach, made the course very stimulating by spicing it up with many activities and exercises. Among the numerous topics that trainees learnt about were the characteristics of a good leader, how to understand their relationship with themselves and others, how to address tasks according to their urgency and/or importance, the difference between influence and persuasion in communicating with others, and the levels and principles of listening.

The Goducate workers not only lead teams in various projects. They also train others. For instance, the Philippines is made up of many small villages, and Goducate conducts leadership training for the village heads.

Goducate’s motto is helping others to help themselves. To help ourselves be self-sufficient in funding our work, Goducate also conducts, for a fee, leadership training to business corporations. The training our workers received in Singapore should enhance the type of training they can offer to others.