Dr. Paul Yew Hua Choo is the founder and chairman of Goducate Limited, a Singapore-based not-for-profit organization with projects in nine Asian countries that include China, Cambodia, Malaysia, Mynmar, India, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, and Vietnam. Goducate is coined from two words, “ Go and Educate”. Its avowed purpose is to help needy Asians help themselves.
Born in Singapore on 29 July 1947, Dr. Choo obtained his elementary and secondary education from the Anglo-Chinese School. He graduated from the Medical Faculty, University of Singapore (renamed National University of Singapore) and qualified as a medical doctor in 1971. He was conferred with honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Bob Jones University, South Carolina, USA in 1998.
He started Shenton Medical Group (SMG) in 1973. SMG became Singapore’s largest medical group in the 1990’s. In 1998, he sold SMG to Parkway Holdings (Singapore’s largest hospital group). SMG was renamed “Parkway Shenton” – and continues until today as one of Singapore’s largest medical groups.
In 1998, he started Gospel Light Christian Church (GLCC) and pastored it for 20 years. During the same period, he also did voluntary work among the poor in India, Malaysia, Kenya, China, and Philippines. In 2008, when GLCC had an average Sunday congregation of over 1,000 people, he retired from pastoring to devote himself to full-time social work. Eventually, this led to his founding of Goducate Limited in 2009.
His first visit to Philippines was in 1965 when he represented Malaysia (Singapore was then a part of Malaysia) at the First Asian Junior Tennis Championships held in Manila. In 1982, he had an opportunity to visit Iloilo en route to Cebu to start a work among the poor children in Cebu’s Pasil Fish Market. An Ilonggo friend had brought him to Doane Baptist Seminary (DBS) to recruit workers for the Cebu work. He then recruited the three people that DBS recommended. Thereafter, he has made many (well over 100) visits to Iloilo to meet friends and recruit workers for his social projects in Philippines and other Asian countries.
Dr. Choo unequivocally chose Iloilo as site for the Goducate Training Center (GTC) on the belief that the Ilonggos are the best workers for the world. He hopes to train many Ilonggos to help change Asia – by helping Asians to help themselves. During the past three years he has already sent 60 workers from Iloilo to China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
He believes that in order to help other Asians successfully, the trainees at GTC must first help needy Ilonggos to help themselves. He expects to see the barangays around GTC to be transformed – to serve as models for other Asian communities.
GTC aims to be the premier Asian center for training community development workers (CDWs) . The center had its first batch of full-time students in April 2012 for a six-month training. There are trainees from China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philippines in this first batch. GTC itself has the capacity to train 100 CDWs per year. The faculty is mostly Ilonggo. Others are from the United States of America, Africa, Singapore, Indonesia, and China. It is expected that 60 percent of the trained CDWs will work in the Philippines while 40 percent will be assigned to other Asian countries.
The graduates from the three previous batches are now teaching English and doing community development related activities in Cambodia, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam.
Dr. Choo has contributed immensely to the economy of Iloilo, particularly in the town of San Miguel, during the construction phase of GTC. From June 2010 until April 2012, about 150 skilled and unskilled workers from the nearby barangays were employed daily, which translates to about 80,000 generated mandays. Additionally, most of the construction materials and equipment were locally purchased and rented, respectively. He has also provided technical support to some farmer-cooperators in the area and has trained groups of farmers on sustainable farming technologies through his agricultural experts.
He was chosen as one of “Asians of the Year 2011” by Channel News Asia and a documentary of his work was filmed in GTC and broadcast throughout Asia. Last year, the Local Government Unit of San Miguel, Iloilo recognized Dr. Paul Choo as its adopted son through SB Resolution No. 2012-68.
He is married to Nancy Yanling Choo with whom he has three children: Timothy, Lish, David, and Stephen, and three grand-daughters: Allysa, Makeila, and Livia.
Source: http://www.iloilometropolitantimes.com/paul-choo-the-visionary/