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Our Indonesian Goducate worker finds a beautiful bride!

Recently I attended the wedding of our Indonesian Goducate staff worker, Lekson. The wedding was held at our Goducate Learning Center in Batam. The hall that normally is full of noisy kampong kids learning English was transformed into a “grand” wedding hall.

It was a joy for me to see Lekson, in his formal suit, standing next to his beautiful bride Yuli resplendent in her native Batak dress. As I looked at this fine-looking couple standing before me, I couldn’t help reflecting on how much Lekson has been transformed in the past 3 years. I still remember the Lekson who used to attend our Goducate sessions with blood-shot eyes, smelling of alcohol and tobacco, looking bored and distracted in class. I remember the angry, ill-disciplined young man who wasted his hard-earned money on gambling. I remember how he was always late because he couldn’t get up on time.Today, Lekson speaks to me in fluent English. He even teaches English in our Goducate centers. When we opened a new Goducate Center in Batam, he was appointed to head it. Today, he is a model of diligence and discipline. I felt like a proud father at this wedding!

I dream of the day that this new Lekson will reproduce many more little Leksons, not only through his dear wife but also through his life-example to the hundreds of children who come to our Goducate centers!

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Goducate offered camp-site in Batam!

Goducate has been offered the free use of a camp-site in a “prime” location near one of the busiest towns in Batam, Indonesia. This brand new facility is not the typical youth camp-site but is ideal for “urban” camping. It consists of 6 terrace-houses (connected houses), an internal covered courtyard and a community hall. The whole complex was donated by generous Koreans as a community-center for this part of Indonesia.

Goducate will run the first Camping English International (CEI) for 60 Indonesian teenagers on April 2 to 4. Young adults and youth from Singapore and Philippines will organise the camp and the fun-activities. An experienced lady drama teacher from Singapore will run the drama workshops. All activities will be conducted in English to encourage (force!) the Indonesians to converse in English. The main objective of this camp is to help the campers to improve their spoken English. The other objectives of the camp are to give the Indonesian youth exposure to other cultures, build bonds between Indonesians, Singaporeans and Filipinos and for the youths from these countries to learn from one another.

If this first CEI camp is successful, Goducate hopes to run a monthly camp and to run regular daily weekday English and computer classes in that campsite. According to Goducate’s Batam Advisor, there is presently a ready pool of 30,000 teenagers who are keen to learn English in Batam through CEI!

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Goducate’s new learning center in Batu Aji Batam

Batam is Indonesia’s “SEZ” (Special Economic Zone). Hundreds of multinational companies (MNC’s) have factories on this island. In the past two decades, almost a million people (mostly from other parts of Indonesia) have come to Batam to look for work.

Many of them eventually bring their families over and settle down in Batam. Because almost every one on this island is a migrant, Batam has the feel of a frontier town. Needless to say, most of these migrants face many challenges as they try to cope in a new environment, learn new skills, etc.

Goducate started its first learning center in Batam in Punggur, to meet the needs of the poorer migrants. This center provides English, computer and music classes for both school-age students and adults.

Presently, over a hundred regular students attend its classes throughout the week. A Singapore health-care organization, MHC Asia Group (Singapore) generously supports this center – not only financially but also by sending its staff over to help teach the students and to provide medical care.

Encouraged by the success of this center, Goducate decided to start a second center in a much larger town called Batu Aji. Again, MHC Asia Group stepped up to provide advice, encouragement and finances. Two months ago a large shop-house right in the “heart” of the town was rented and extensively renovated.

Goducate expects this center to attract hundreds of people because of the large population in Batu Aji and the lack of free education for the migrants. Goducate expects to start operations at the end of November and provide kindergarten classes, English, computer classes and other livelihood programs.

Thankfully, some excellent teachers have offered their services to help us to develop our curricula and training programs.

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