Goducate … Go And Educate! – Page 73 – Helping Asians Help Themselves

2014-06-172014-06-19

Goducate teachers in Vietnam help to run a video club

The four of us Goducate workers sent to Vietnam to teach English are now also helping in a new project meant, among other things, to improve English communication skills. This project is the newly formed club of iCan International Education called iCan Productions. It is a video club designed for students and professionals who are interested in acting, video editing, and film-making and who have the desire to improve their English communication skills. The members meet every two weeks, on Saturday evenings..

At the first session, we started with an introduction about the video club and included some warm-up activities, ice breakers, and drama-skill activities related to self or body awareness. Then, we taught them pronunciation, followed by enunciation and conceptualization of the story. After the acting workshop, we taught them camera parts and usage and helped them to understand shutter speed, aperture, and white balance.

At the second session we reviewed most of the best acting activities we did during the previous session and added hands and face drama movements. Most of them were excellent in their group performance. Then, we taught them pronunciation and enunciation. Next, they were taught about how to structure a story for a movie based on The Hero’s Journey. Finally we taught them about camera angles and lighting.

The project will teach the members more than just film-making and English communication skills. Members will learn team-work and creativity, and will have fun letting their hair down in the process. They were also learn to compete, for there will be a film competition on Aug 9.

How to take good pictures using smart phones

Merianne is one of the Goducate teachers sent to help in Vietnam

2014-06-112014-06-12

Communities around Goducate Training Center adopt vermiculture

One way by which Goducate plans to help needy Filipinos help themselves is to promote vermiculture among these people. They can then either use the organic fertilizer thus produced by the African night crawler worms for their own crops, or they can sell the fertilizer. When we brought the neighboring villagers to the Goducate Training Center to learn about vermiculture, the uptake was poor. So we decided to go into the community to teach them on site, and the uptake has been encouraging.

The vermiculture program in the areas neighboring the Goducate Training Center in San Miguel, Iloilo, was started in October 2013 One household per “sitio” (an area within a barangay [village], usually far from the barangay center) is given ¼ kg of worms and taught in its own backyard how to culture these worms. When the worms have multiplied, that household gives 1 kg to another household in the sitio. So far, 12 households in 7 sitios around GTC have been producing vermicompost through the Goducate program.

The first person to have a vermibed in his own backyard was Rommy, a farmer in Sitio Sapa, Barangay San Antonio. Previously he spent a considerable sum on commercial fertilizers. So far he has harvested 275 kg in 5 months from January to May 2014 . He uses the compost on his own vegetables, and now spends only a small amount on commercial fertilizer.

One of our more successful vermicompost producers is Rommel from Barangay Sto Angel, who started on the program in January this year. Rommel, a farmer, taught his children how to take care of the worms while he is busy at work. The vermibeds need to be checked frequently to ensure that there is enough moisture and enough substrate (usually dung and rice hay, rice stalks, madre de cacao leaves, ipil-ipil leaves, banana trunks and common grasses, which are rich in nitrogen) for the worms to work on. Within 2 months his ¼ kg of worms had become 5 kg, and he was able to harvest 12 sacks (1 sack = 40 to 50 kg) of compost in 3 months. He uses the compost for his own vegetables and sells some of it. With the profit he was able to buy clothes for his children. He gave a portion of his worms to his nephew.

Rommel and his family with the vermibeds

The guest writer is Melody, a community development worker based at GTC.

2014-06-062014-06-09

Goducate volunteers for Happy Happy English received more than they gave

Goducate has been conducting its Happy Happy English program in two dormitories for foreign workers in Singapore. And it has been possible only through the efforts of our band of volunteers, who have given up Saturday night after Saturday night to travel long distances to these dormitories to teach the residents functional English and to extend to them a hand of friendship.

Hence last Wednesday, at the start of a few weeks’ break in the program, Goducate held a volunteers’ appreciation night at which volunteers came to share experiences. It was also a time during which newcomers learnt about Goducate philosophy and methods.

Volunteers who were picked upon to speak impromptu about their thoughts on the Happy Happy English program told the rest how they had received much more than they had given. They told about what the students had said about the program—-how the students valued not just the teaching, but also the warmth of the friendship received. In many cases meeting Goducate was the first time that locals had encountered a friendly face. Some students even referred to volunteers as family.

Most of the blue-collar foreign workers live in dormitories housing thousands of people and generally sited in the middle of nowhere. They work long hours, hence the scheduling of the classes for Saturday nights, and even then many of them don’t get to class on time at 8pm. Because of overtime, they sometimes get back later than that, with barely time for a quick shower, and dinner to be cooked after class ends at 10 pm.

Goducate will be starting the Happy Happy English program in a third dormitory soon. But there are nearly 50 dormitories for foreign workers in Singapore. Thus many volunteers will be needed for the program to be offered to more dormitories. The Happy Happy English program needs volunteers to teach, to facilitate the small-group work during which students practise their oral English, to help with technical matters, to act, sing and dance for our videos, and even to cook. Dinner at the volunteer-appreciation night was prepared by volunteers.

Watching video of HHE graduation ceremony

Volunteers in foreground giving feedback about HHE program, while newbies in background learn about Goducate