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Sabah Literacy Centers latest resource – teenage teachers

Every time I visit Goducate’s Literacy Centers in Sabah, I am amazed by the quality of the teachers. They may lack the professional diplomas or the grasp of the intricacies of English grammar but they more than make up for these by their passion and love for the kids they teach.

When I see them teaching in the little run-down classrooms, using the simplest teaching aids, I am convinced that teaching is more a passion than a profession!

Because Goducate believes in helping the needy to help themselves, Goducate trains local mums to teach their own kampong children. This strategy has worked well thus far. Besides the passion that these mums bring to their teaching each day, this strategy is extremely cost-effective and sustainable.

After almost 3 years of developing literacy centers for the illegal aliens in Sabah, we have now discovered another rich teacher resource – namely, our former students who can now teach what they have learned from us!

Several of these students have already joined our “faculty” as assistant teachers and then moved on to being full-fledged literacy teachers, while at the same time continuing with their own schooling. Every time, I see one of these teenage teachers I am assured that Goducate’s philosophy of helping people to help themselves is more than a slogan – it is a reality.

On my most recent trip, when I was introduced to the new teachers I was pleasantly shocked to be introduced to a 12 year old teacher. Azmi was always an outstanding student and I was sure that he would be special but to see him join the “faculty” at the age of 12 was more than I could imagine.

Teenage teachers (Azmi 2nd from right)

Azmi is not a teenage teacher, he is a “child” teacher! Thankfully, it’s not child labor but a labor of love for Azmi to teach his fellow kampong mates!

teachers meeting
Teenage teacher who hopes to be a lawyer one day
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Goducate Training Center’s fish pond

On our recent trip to Goducate Training Center in Iloilo, Philippines we had the opportunity to catch the tilapia in our impounding lake.

The primary purpose of the impounding lake is to provide a source ofwater for our rice fields. Though there are 5 fresh-water springs on site, high-yielding rice requires lots of water to produce optimal yields.

Since the impounding lake is large (about half an acre) and deep (about 5 meters). we decided to stock it with fast-breeding fish. A local fish research institute gave us an hundred tilapia fingerlings a few months ago. Today, there are over 10,000 tilapia of various sizes.

Food to feed the tilapia is obtained from a local meat producer and bakery. Their “spoiled” meat and bakery items are fed to the tilapias.

We were handed bamboo fishing rods and we began pulling tilapia out of the lake every minute. The little tilapias were thrown back into the lake and the large breeders were also thrown back.

A visitor to GTC fishing for tilapia
A visitor with his tilapia (this size of this fish is made much larger because it is held near the camera!)

These fish will be the main source of animal protein for the Goducate trainees when they begin their training at the end of April.

 

The Goducate trainees will also learn to breed tilapias so that they can help poor communities find another source of protein and income.

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The “Software” @ Goducate Training Center in Iloilo, Philippines

Having met and worked with many teams in various corporate companies or organisations from different countries, diverse backgrounds, multi-racial, cross-cultures over the last 25 years, I must admit that the team of key personnel/volunteers at the Goducate Training Center in Iloilo, Philippines is very different!

May be different is not a good word to describe this group of people. Let me think of a more appropriate adjective … passionate, well, more than that. Committed, yes that’s what they are. United, definitely! Bold, creative, dedicated, energetic … the list goes on … but one thing that comes up all the time is FUN!

Whether is the construction of buildings/huts, the irrigation lake and canals, plant-nursery, green-house, vermi-culture beds, activity fields, hiking trails, clearing of land, terracing of slopes, planting of hybrid rice or vegetables and fruit-trees, the FUN element never seem to cease!

I can’t quite describe what makes this great team of workers so unique, but there is certainly something special in them! So much excitement! So much enthusiasm! So much zeal! … that it is influential and spreading to those around them!

It was great to see the “hardware” (training centre) shaping up but it felt better to see the “software” going strong and progressing on the right track! Indeed, “People makes the difference”!

As we discussed the business model and first phase of training programmes at the Centre to groom community workers when the multi-purpose hall is completed by end of this year, each minute did not go by without extreme excitement from these core workers. They are so willing to adapt and be flexible, going all out to make it work!

We are hopeful that this training centre project will excel because these people are having a great time developing and implementing their plans, or rather dreams to help their own needy community to help themselves!