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Camaraderie at Goducate community center in KL

It was early morning in Kuala Lumpur when my sister and I headed out to the Global Friends Hub, a Goducate community center for migrant workers and others to gather and engage in wholesome activities. On our way we stopped to get some Roti Canai, a local food that is a must-try if you’re ever in that area. We were warmly greeted by some of the volunteers as we walked through the doors of a comfortable gathering place where in just a short time people from different parts of the globe would gather to chat and do what we do in South East Asia: eat food.

When we arrived, our new friends were preparing breakfast—it was a pity that we had just eaten! We were eager to meet the faces that came through the door and for the next few hours we seemingly had non-stop conversations with people from many different places. Some joined us because their current employment is there in KL and they wanted to find some friends to spend time with, others were there because hard times had hit and getting to have a well-rounded meal was not a normal occurrence. Either way, the friends who gathered together spent time encouraging each other. As friends shared with each other what challenges they’ve recently faced there was a great sense of camaraderie there.
One of the volunteers of Global Friends Hub shared with me that one of the men that frequently visits, originally came as a beggar. On this particular day she was surprised because he was cleaned up, wearing clean clothes and seeming to make a turn for the better.

Another delightful aspect of this center is that it’s not just for adults—children joined in the time of fellowship and had fun together. My sister played Jenga (a tower-building game that requires physical and mental skill) with one of the children while other youth were strumming their guitars. I enjoyed talking to the youth, getting a glimpse of what their life is like. There was an elderly man who joyfully chose to serve others there by washing the many dishes. Different ladies, who have busy work schedules, took time to prepare delicious dishes to share with all that came. There’s no question why people return to this center, the atmosphere is filled with love and is very family-like. You never know what kind of impact a community of friends can have on a life. Yet this I know, spending the day with new friends was a refreshing reminder that race, nationality, and status level shouldn’t create barriers when it comes to developing healthy friendships

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Helping poor Asians – one backyard at a time (Part 2)

I was told by a Filipino friend that many Filipinos don’t plant vegetables in their backyard because their neighbors will simply help themselves to the vegetables. And most Filipinos would rather lose their vegetables than lose the friendship of their neighbors!

I believe that this is a real problem because many Asian countries share this same communal characteristic. However, I believe that for every problem there is a possible solution. And my solution to this problem is that we should help the whole community to grow vegetables so that all will have vegetables of their own!

Of course, the next question is how do we get a whole community to produce their own vegetables? In every community, there are hard-working people and lazy people – and usually the lazy ones outnumber the hard-working ones. However, I believe that the power of envy is a very powerful motivator – even to the lazy ones!

I believe that if our community worker himself starts with his own little backyard plot in the community then after 3 months, the sight of his juicy tomatoes, red chillies, over-size bitter gourds, extra long long-beans, crunchy pakchoy will evoke enough envy among the neighbors to ask not only for freebies but also for a few earthworms (to produce good fertilizer) and a few tomato seeds and long-bean cuttings!

A little envy, greed and competition among mothers may just be what’s needed to turn Asia’s idle backyards to productive food machines for Asia’s poor!


Goducate believes that the key to the success of this plan is to train community workers who can first turn their own backyards into “model-farms” and then let envy drive one neighbor after another to turn their backyards into model-farms.

The first batch of community workers in Laguna are already being trained in the Goducate model farm there. The large farm in Iloilo will hopefully take in their first batch in December.

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Goducate Training Center must be self-supporting

Several people have asked why we had planned to have nice dormitories and facilities at our Goducate Training Center in Iloilo, Philippines. They rightly wondered why we wanted to “spoil” our Goducate trainees – who were being trained to work in poor communities. Couldn’t they just sleep on the floor in the Multi-Purpose Hall?

It is likely that the first few batches of trainees will indeed sleep on the floor in the Multi-Purpose Hall, until funds are available to build additional facilities.

However, we are hoping eventually to build proper dormitories and recreational facilities so that the Center can be self-supporting. A core philosophy of Goducate is to help Asians help themselves. Therefore, one of the core skills that our trainees will learn at the Center is to learn how to be self-supporting. It is our hope that when they are sent to poor communities, they will creatively impart this core-vaue of self-support to their communities.

There are several ways that we hope will make the Center self-supporting. A major way is to produce their own food. Trainees will be taught scientific, small-scale food production that can be transferred to most Asian poor rural communities. A good part of the acreage of the camp and a large part of the initial funding is for soil preparation and irrigation. We have several top quality agriculturalists serving as Goducate volunteers at the Center who will help us to achieve this.

Another major way of raising funds is to rent out the Center to corporations for their training functions and to individuals seeking recreational facilities. There is a large potential market for a well run, recreational facility in Iloilo. Besides raising funds for the running of the camp, trainees will also be able to learn many useful skills, eg. management, leadership, planning, creativity. For the Center to be a recreational center, it will need, as funds are available, to have nice facilities, eg. decent accommodation, interesting recreational facilities.

Since funds are limited, we will focus on the agricultural aspect first. After all, the trainees need to eat and agricultural skills are needed in most of the communities that we serve. Scientific, sustainable, small-scale agriculture will be the best way to help Asians help themselves.