Goducate … Go And Educate!

The Goducate scholars took part the Brigada Eskwela (Schools Brigade) program in Laguna this year. This program is an annual Philippines Department of Education program, whereby teachers and students as well as the community help to prepare the school for the coming school year, which starts in August. The week-long program is intended to make the school surroundings as well as the classrooms clean and tidy.

Thus on May 30, our Goducate scholars helped to paint the walls of Masaya National High School and clean its yard. For our scholars, the work was a way of expressing their gratitude for their scholarships and a way of contributing to their community.

Goducate scholarships are awarded to university students in the music program in Laguna whose family income falls below the provincial minimum wage rate. The scholarship pays for the university fees. In return the scholar helps with the music program and other Goducate community work.

Since January this year, Goducate has partnering a private manpower service in Laguna whose aim is very much in line with ours of helping the needy help themselves. This service runs campaigns in villages on the outskirts of Laguna to help out-of-school youth find jobs. We have thus been channelling to this service those attending our Alternative Learning System (ALS) programme, as well as those in our other community programmes.

All applicants have to attend a seminar and personal-development training session at the Goducate Training Center in Laguna. The Human Resources Department of the manpower service tells the applicants about the company that is doing the hiring, and the benefits and rights of the workers. The Goducate team then discusses the importance of Knowledge (about the company), the Skills needed, and the importance of a Positive Attitude in the workplace. Some will then be invited to go for a job interview.

So far, through this partnership more than 100 people in our various programmes have been able to find jobs paying them around the provincial daily rate of PhP 340 ($7.20). Most of the jobs are in food factories.

Last December some 400 children in the Goducate program in Laguna each received a recorder from a group of Goducate supporters (see blog, Feb 12, 2016). They were then able to get lessons on Saturdays, when our volunteers, mainly Goducate scholars, go to the various villages to offer tuition in a range of subjects.

At the March quarterly Children’s Day, when the children from all the villages gather together at the Goducate Training Center, 120 of the children took part in a recorder competition. The winner was the team from Bayan area.

Guests at the competition included village officials, school officials, and staff from the Police Department. The children’s performance led the village chieftain to invite them to play at the village event on March 26 at which he was addressing his constituents on what he had accomplished for them. School officials also invited the children to play at a graduation ceremony on March 26.

These invitations raised the children’s morale considerably and encouraged them to practise hard for the Annual Music Workshop held on May 17-21. At this workshop, 12 were selected to go on to learn how to play other instruments. Another round of evaluation will take place later this month.