The children in the Goducate Children’s Home recently had an opportunity not only to attend a wedding, but also to take part in it. The occasion was staff member Ronnie’s marriage. Earlier, the children had had a part to play in Ronnie’s proposal of marriage.
Ronnie, a Filipino, has been helping at the Home for the past 5 years. His bride Joy, also a Filipino, has been teaching at a Korean school in Cambodia for the past 7 years. They first met when Joy and her friends came to the Home to help decorate our dormitories and learning center. Thus many of the children have witnessed the development of the romance.
During the wedding, the children provided the music, and served as flower girls, as ring and contract bearer, or as usherettes. They had also decorated the venue for the wedding.
Children helping Ronnie propose to JoyChildren providing music at the weddingAll dressed up to be part of the bridal entourage
Goducate philosophy is that, for our projects to be sustainable, the training we give people should enable them to help themselves. Thus it is only right that Goducate should try to help itself, rather than depend on sponsors all the time. The Goducate Training Center (GTC) in Iloilo is thus working towards self-sufficiency. It has been conducting Edutours for schools (see blog June 5, 2012). We have also started to rent out space at GTC to large groups of people.
This week Youthlead Philippines ran its Fourth Philippine Transformative Approaches to Innovative Leadership (TRAIL) Summer Camp at GTC. The camp was attended by some 350 youth leaders.
GTC was able to provide accommodation for such a large number by re-using the tents that had been used for our Goducate Tent Schools project, to add to the jungle huts and hillside villas that are normally used for accommodating visitors. The tent-schools project was Goducate’s response to the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in late 2013. We helped schools in North Panay, an area near GTC, by either re-roofing schoolrooms with tarpaulin if the structure of the building was still intact, or by providing tents to serve as classrooms in cases where the building was unstable (see blogs Jan 17, 2014 and Mar 4, 2014).
Some 40 tents were erected in GTC among the jungle huts. Open tents were also set up in the field to serve as the dining area.
There are now plans to build extra rooms, so that we can take in even larger groups.
Tents beside Jungle Hut and jacuzzi pool (in far left of pic)Ready for dinner
In the middle of last year. Goducate in Laguna began to work with the police, training them to be basketball officials (see blog of Aug 14, 2015). The idea behind the partnership was to help the police to reach out to youth through sports. Keeping youth focused on a sport can help keep them out of trouble.
As part of this partnership, a friendly basketball league was held at the Goducate center in Laguna on April 6. One of the largest problems in the Philippines now among youths is drug addiction, so the theme for the event was “Support Sports and Avoid Illegal Drugs”. We agreed that building a strong relationship and trust between the community and the authorities could help prevent youths from being tempted by drugs, and one way of building such relationships is through sports, which is very popular in the Philippines.
Altogether 7 teams took part in the league, including the village chieftain’s team. In addition, Goducate’s sports coordinator also invited 2 Philippines Basketball Association (PBA) players to give their testimonies at the event. Both came from the leading teams in the PBA league, and both believe in the value of sports as a means of keeping youths out of trouble. The participants were much encouraged by hearing how these players managed to overcome their struggles to be successful PBA players. One of them told of how basketball enabled him to finish his studies and attain financial freedom.
The participants were also addressed by our Municipal Chief of Police, who encouraged them to avoid illegal vices. In particular, he talked about the adverse effects of drug addiction not only on the addicts but also on their families, and he warned them how hard it is to break the addiction.
The 7 teams participating in the leagueListening to the Municipal Chief of Police
