Earlier this year, Goducate discussed our dreams with our teachers (who are the local mums that we have trained to teach their own people) and we came to the “conclusion” that we should aim for 100 centers in the north Sabah area.
At that time, it seemed like an impossible dream. However, when I returned to Sabah recently one month after that planning meeting – we had started another 7 literacy centers! 7 new centers in 1 month is not bad at all!!
Most of these centers are small – with about 50 to 60 children. Most of them are held in the “balcony” of a house or in the sitting room of a house. These premises are offered by kampong people who are keen that their kids get to learn to read and write.
For the time being, teachers from neighboring kampongs with established literacy centers are sent to teach. In a few months, local mums will be trained (on the job, and in our training program) to take over.
New school in sitting room of kampong's "rich" man's houseNew school in "balcony" of house
Goducate hopes to move on to southern Sabah this year and repeat this dream to help needy people help themselves to read and write.
Yesterday, Ibu Roska, our co-worker in Indonesia came to the Goducate office to share with us her need of English teachers and computer teachers for Indonesia. Ibu Roska has been my long-time friend and co-worker in Indonesia. All our three centers in Batam, Indonesia, have been started with her help. Without her experience and expertise in starting projects in Indonesia, we would still be groping our way through the complex web of Indonesian immigration laws, corporate laws, educational laws, etc.
Ibu Roska has built about 20 schools in different parts of Indonesia – most of them in poorer communities. Besides these schools she has built so many other community projects that she is unable to remember them all! When I say “built,” I mean that she has been the one who was instrumental in planning, raising the funds to build it, recruiting the faculty and staff, raising the funds to pay for the running of the school until such time that it could be self-financing, etc. This is certainly no mean feat for a lady who has no funds of her own, who is not part of a large organization and who has three teenage children studying in Singapore to look after. As far as I can see, what drives this dear lady is her strong desire to help Indonesians help themselves through education.
A Goducate center in Indonesia started witht the help of Ibu Roska
Yesterday she told me that each of the schools she has started is in need of English teachers and computer teachers. There is a dire shortage of competent English teachers in Indonesia, and a shortage of competent computer teachers and computers in the Indonesian school system. This fits in nicely with our Goducate strategy of helping poor Asians in these two important areas of education.
We ended our meeting with an agreement for Goducate to send English and computer teachers to two of her projects – a school in a remote place near Pekan Baru, Sumatra, and a new center that she has just built in Batam. (More information of the places and scope of work will be posted after we have worked out the details.)
We look forward to helping Ibu Roska help her people help themselves – through provision of Goducate English teachers and computer teachers and computer resources.
Will you volunteer to teach English or computer skills to Indonesians?
