Goducate … Go And Educate!

Ever since Joanna Lou Tubal visited the Goducate Children’s Home in Cambodia 3 years ago with a youth team, she has kept in touch. Yet I was surprised when she decided to join our staff because she already had a good job as a floor staff nurse in a good hospital in the Philippines.

She works hard not only as our nurse (which could mean working round the clock if a child is ill), but also helps in the schoolhouse, oversees the cooking of the food, and prepares breakfast for the children every other day. She checks daily on the personal hygiene of the children, especially the younger ones, monitors how children wash their clothes, and sees to it that the dorms are clean and properly maintained. On top of all these she helps to teach the children songs, and the children like to be with her.

Here, Joanna tells of her experience in the Home:  “The Goducate Children’s Home is unusual in that most of the children are not orphans–but they have been neglected or abandoned. As such, personal hygiene is not part of their upbringing, so the younger ones do need close supervision regarding personal cleanliness. Their background also means that they can be defiant, especially when the houseparents are not around. I understand how important it is to be strict with them, otherwise they will not gain anything from coming into the Home. Yet I am conscious that they need special care because they come from dysfunctional families, and that, despite their background, they do have the opportunity and potential to be trained to be useful members of the community.”

The Goducate Children’s Home has recently had some new staff. One of them is Lethel (Ada) Bahandi, who has joined us as a clerk. She is from the Philippines, where she used to work in a hotel.

Lethel is a most willing and very cooperative worker, and very compassionate and loving to the children. She wears the biggest smile every day, even on “bad” days, and her hearty laugh gives away her presence. Her spirit is contagious.

Here she tells us of her impressions of the Home:

“During my first three months my impression was that the Home was like a “camp”, with rules and schedules to follow. However, I now see it as a home, a real home, where the children are well taken care of, provided with basic needs such as nutritious food, beautiful clean housing, enough clothing, and, most of all, I see how they are loved by the house parents. The house parents, Noe and Grace, attend not only to their physical needs but also nurture them to be good examples to their own community when they are old enough to leave the Home.

“We, the staff, collaborate in the training of these children, guiding them in keeping the environment clean, in attending to personal hygiene, in cultivating good manners, and in understanding the value of education. These are not qualities inherent in children so guidance and discipline are necessary. And we realize how important it is for us to communicate with the children in love.”