Posted on

Settling in nicely into their new home

Two months ago, Goducate sent a team of 11 English teachers from 5 countries to teach English at the Jogjakarta School of Environmental Engineering (called Sekolah Tinggi Teknik Lingkungan or STTL in Bahasa Indonesia).

Our English teachers in Jogjakarta
Our English teachers in Jogjakarta

Jogjakarta is the campus capital of Indonesia – with over 100 tertiary institutions of higher learning, attracting students from all over Indonesia.

Most of the students of STTL come from the poorer provinces of eastern Indonesia – and the objective of this school is that most of their graduates will return to their provinces to help improve the infrastructure of their home-places (particularly, to help electrify their home-places).

Heading the team at STTL is Prof. L E Redick, who is the Director of our English center, which is called the International Center of English Excellence (ICEE). The rest of team consists of our Head Teacher from India, 2 Filipinas, 2 Singaporeans, 3 Americans, 1 Malaysian and 1 Indonesian. Their task is to make STTL a center for English excellence.

The English center at STTL
The English center at STTL
Our head teacher
Our head teacher

The team has settled nicely into the comfortable on-campus accommodation provided by STTL. They are busy teaching both the faculty and students to upgrade their English and in the process have made many new Indonesian friends and built wonderful bridges into the lives of their students – many of whom will be the future leaders of Indonesia.

News of their good work is spreading and other universities in different parts of Indonesia have already approached us to start similar programs in their universities.

Indonesia is an emerging country with a great future.

Indonesia welcomes us to help them!

Posted on

Goducate’s new learning center in Lanit Iloilo

On Oct 25, Goducate opened its new learning center in the little village of Lanit, 25 minutes drive from the city of Iloilo, Philippines.

About 6 months ago, some Goducate workers started Saturday classes for the children of this village. Prior to this, these same Goducate workers had been teaching these same poor kids in the city of Iloilo.

However, when their families were relocated to Lanit to make way for the new airport, the kids asked these workers to continue teaching them. So the Goducate workers asked permission from the Lanit village-head (called “barangay captain” in the Philippines) to use the village basketball court to hold classes for the kids. However, this became unfeasible later when there was competition from other users for the basketball court.

When a kind Filipino, who resides in the USA, heard about our need, he offered us the use of his large rice-fields in that area for free. So it was decided to fill a small portion of land at the edge of his rice-field and build a little building for a Goducate Learning Center.

The children at the Goducate learning center in Lanit
The children at the Goducate learning center in Lanit

Lanit is a relocation site for former squatters in Iloilo. Most families struggle to make ends meet and to keep their children in school.

When I arrived on the afternoon of October 25 for the Official Opening of the center, the little building was filled with over a hundred children and another hundred parents and well-wishers. The local village (barangay) officials were also there.

It was indeed a joyous occasion for that little neglected village on the edge of the rice-fields.

The little kids will now get to learn their ABC’s.

And the older kids will have a nice place to study and play.

More photos (click thumbnail to view photos):
[nggtags gallery=lanit-lc]