Helping Asians Help Themselves
Five dentists volunteered their services and provided a free dental clinic to poor communities in Cambodia in mid-December 2013. One of the areas the dentists were invited to was a military camp in Kampung Spue Cambodia.
The camp is run by General Sok Rumduol, a commander of Samdeck Hun Sen Body Guard unit. The families of the soldiers were also invited to the free dental clinic. For more than 5 hours, the team together with volunteers, worked diligently to serve over 70 patients at the camp.
Goducate teachers in Sabah spent Jan 1-2 attending their 1st teacher-training camp. The teachers at the Goducate learning centers in Sabah are mostly the women who have had some education. Goducate sends teacher trainers over at least twice a year. In the past the teachers would turn each day for the sessions, but this time, they stayed over for a night. 42 teachers attended the camp.
Our regular trainer and curriculum developer went over to teach them how to improve their teaching skills and class management. She was accompanied by four others who taught the teachers team-building activities and various games, the principles of running an “English corner”, and how to produce visual aids for the classroom. In addition the teachers were given motivational talks.
During an English corner, students would be gathered round a teacher or facilitator to learn English by talking about a chosen topic. It would be a session during which the students rather than the teachers would do most of the talking.
Goducate musicians spent the Christmas period raising funds for others. One event was their “concert for a cause”. Taking part in the concert was also a choir of elementary school students who had been a part of our feeding program. The aim of the concert was to raise funds, half for the relief work that Goducate is doing for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in northern Panay, and half for the orchestra’s upcoming activities.
The benefit concert, which lasted for about two hours, entertained the audience with Christmas carols and popular Filipino songs.
The event, held at the Goducate Music Studio, was attended by over a hundred people and raised PHP 8929 ($200).
Another fund-raising effort was made by those Goducate musicians who are college students on Goducate bursaries. Armed with their voices and musical instruments, they went carolling for 3 nights. They used the PHP 3645 ($85) that they raised to buy gifts for the needy. Some of these gifts of food and fruit were distributed to needy patients at a government hospital, and some to widows attending a Christmas party in a nearby community. The patients responded to the serenading with carols and the gifts with big smiles and some teary eyes.
These fund-raising events indicate that Goducate musicians have embraced the core philosophy of Goducate, which is to help Asians help themselves and then to help others.
