Goducate … Go And Educate!

Speaking fluent English is a necessary communication tool and an important skill needed in most countries, and also in the Philippines. Hence Goducate is offering an English Corner program to Leonora Salapantan National High School in San Miguel, Iloilo, the area where the Goducate Training Center is situated.

The program consists of “creative, stress-free, and laugh-off-your-mistakes” sessions of conversational English for grade 7 students. It kicked off in late August and is open to those interested grade 7 students who have secured their parents’ consent to take part. The English Corner facilitators meet their students every Thursday afternoon for an hour of fun-filled and resourceful English conversation.

The English Corner facilitators are Goducate trainees who can speak English well, and who have been trained as facilitators. 60 enthusiastic students who aspire to be good and confident English speakers attend every week.

* Our guest writer is Joanna De Leon, a community development worker

Aldin is a Goducate Scholar hoping to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Education in March next year from the Laguna State Polytechnic University.

Goducate scholars are students in the Goducate music program in Laguna, Philippines, whose family income falls below the provincial minimum wage and who need help with their with their university fees. Aldin’s story is one of remarkable progress in learning music, of how that has helped him continue his university education, and of how he is now contributing substantially to the music program.

When Aldin’s father became bedridden in 2009, his mother stopped working abroad as a domestic helper to take care of her husband. Aldin, being the elder of 2 children, ended up as the family’s main breadwinner.

He entered college in 2011 but a year later wanted to stop because of financial difficulties. Fortunately he met a Goducate Scholar, learnt of the Goducate scholarship scheme, and became interested in learning to play the violin. He began to learn and soon was given a violin, one of a batch of musical instruments donated by Goducate’s main corporate sponsor, MHC Asia, in 2012. He was a fast learner, and is now able to play also the viola, saxophone, and clarinet. Later he was granted a Goducate scholarship. His ability to play so many instruments also helped him join his university’s brass band and through that to earn a tuition grant from the university.

To help support his family and to earn some pocket money, Aldin uses his free time to teach music and to play for events such as birthdays, weddings, and coming-of-age parties. Also, in keeping with Goducate’s encouragement for its beneficiaries to help others, he gives free viola lessons to 6 students in the Goducate Orchestra who also received instruments donated by MHC Asia.