On our recent trip to Sabah, the twelve members of our team carried a precious cargo of donated text books for our literacy centers. Each one was assigned to carry the maximum load allowed by the budget airline. These were no ordinary books for recreational reading but were brand new “outdated” editions of text books donated by PanPac Educational publishers of Singapore.
When our Goducate staff opened the bags of books, they were so excited that they spent hours “checking out” the books. The verdict: “This is a treasure. Let’s start a primary school for the kids!”
For the past year and a half, Goducate has been busy getting literacy and numeracy into the kampongs, but it is definitely time to move on to giving the kids more than just literacy and numeracy.
Within 4 days of receiving the books, our staff had submitted a plan to start a Pilot Primary 1 to Primary 3 program for our 1st kampong center. It was a simple plan that involved training the capable local teachers (mostly mothers of the students) to use the text books to teach. The only bottle-neck to this plan is a sufficient supply of textbooks. The total number of children enrolled in Sabah Goducate centers already number over 1000.
Let’s hope that we can get other kind publishers and donors to supply more precious cargo, so that Goducate can help Asians help themselves.
This year, one mother takes initiative to start a small literacy center at her small house. The house was built in a swamp area were kangkong plants and cobras lives.
When we went to pay them a visit, around 40 children sitting on the floor, try to write the ABC. As I looked around to observed, I smiled when I saw that the ABC was all over written at their wall made of plywood. At the outside of the house, we also notice that the neighborhood wall has also ABC. I smiled to see how persistent they are to learn, even though the resources are not sufficient.
Last month, Goducate at the same place was able to rent a bigger house with a bigger space compare to their first classroom. The 40 children was happily and proud to transfer to that house with their free bag of school supplies that GODUCATE also provide.
Now the 40 children who were taught by this very enthusiastic teacher increase up to 200 students and 2 other volunteered mothers and 1 teenager. The school house accommodates 4 classes in the morning and 2 classes in the afternoon. Still parents brought their children from the other kampong to enroll for the same purpose to let their children learn how to read and write.
About 6 months ago, a few sponsors pooled together US$360.00 for our Goducate team in Laguna, Philippines to start a vermiculture (“vermi” is high-class word for “worms”) livelihood project.
Prior to this our Goducate team had been studying different methods of helping the poor to help themselves. They did feasibility studies on raising tilapias (a type of fish) in backyard farms, of producing quail’s eggs in backyards, of raising goats, etc.
At the end of about 4-5 months of feasibility studies, we came to the conclusion that using worms to produce fertilizer was most suitable for the people of Laguna. Laguna is the place where the famous International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is situated – this is the place where the rice hybrids of the world are produced to feed Asia’s growing population. The University of the Philippines at Los Banos (UPLB), with its agricultural research departments, are also situated in Laguna.
Our friends at UPLB suggested that we use worms (a special species called “African night crawler”) to turn waste vegetation (eg. grass, banana trunks) into top-quality organic fertilizer. The advantages of this project are many.
Firstly, the price of fertilizers will rise in the long-term because it’s pegged to the price of petroleum. Secondly, fertilizers will always be needed in farming communities. Thirdly, the financial investment is low and technical know-how simple.
So with the funds provided by the kind sponsors, we started our pilot project with a few kilos of worms. The objective was not only to do a feasibility of this method of livelihood but also to produce more worms to pass to other poor people – who would also agree to pass worms on to others. It was in effect, a rural version of a pyramid-scheme in reverse!
This pilot project went on well and met our expectations…. until the typhoon (codenamed “Ketsana” internationally or codenamed “Ondoy” locally) hit Laguna at the end of October 2009. Almost all the worms in about 10 different worm-beds were drowned by the flood!
As our workers were busy surviving the typhoon and busy helping others who were badly affected by the flood, the poor worms were drowning!
When I arrived in Laguna, I witnessed a “salvage” operation to save the worms that were still alive.
Dr Choo and Goducate team salvaging wormsDr Choo and Goducate team salvaging worms
Thankfully, there are enough survivors to re-start the project. Several lessons have been learned from the pilot project and from the flood and these will be put in place to improve our efficiency.
Worms salvaged
I believe that vermiculture is a good project which can help many poor people help themselves.
I believe that it can be used in most agricultural communities throughout Asia.
I believe that it will be more and more useful because the price of oil (and therefore the price of synthetic fertilizers) will rise.
I believe that organic fertilizers will not only provide a source of income for the poor but that it will also produce healthier food for all of us.
More photos (click thumbnail to view photos):
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When our Goducate staff opened the bags of books, they were so excited that they spent hours “checking out” the books. The verdict: “This is a treasure. Let’s start a primary school for the kids!”
