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Philippines media covers Goducate Training Cente, Iloilo, Philippines

Philippines TV Station ABS-CBN interviewed Governor Arthur Defensor of Iloilo during his recent visit to Goducate Training Center last week.

ABS-CBN interviews Gov. Defensor
ABS-CBN interviews Gov. Defensor

Paul Choo, Founder of Goducate, was also interviewed. The telecast of these interviews were televised on that same afternooon (Sept 10) on ABS-CBN local new

The local Iloilo paper, Panay News (Sept 11, 2010) wrote the following article:

31 ID, NON-PROFIT GROUP HELPS POOR THROUGH MEDICAL MISSION poor thru medical mission

By JEZZA NEPOMOCENO

SAN MIGUEL, Iloilo – The Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Division (3ID) and GODUCATE (Go and Educate), a Singapore-based non-profit organization, conducted a medical mission yesterday, catering to about 500 poor residents of Brgy. Santo Angel here.


Aside from the free medical checkup and medicines, the groups also gave free dental operation and circumcision. The activity was in line with GODUCATE’s objective of “helping poor Asians help themselves.”

According to Maj. John Andrada, acting Civil Military Operation Battalion commander, the 3ID provided some of the doctors and dentists needed for the medical mission. Dr. Paul Chu, president of GODUCATE, said Brgy. Santo Angel will become the “breeding ground” of more development activities, being host to the first GODUCATE campsite in the Philippines.

“This (campsite) is not for profit but for community development,” said Chu.

Chu envisions that foreign nationals from other Asian countries will soon come here for their livelihood trainings and literacy programs, which involves introducing modern technology to attain sustainable
development.

Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. who graced the activity lauded the organizers and vowed to support the organization’s projects and development programs for the Ilonggos.

Putting the 1.8-hectare GODUCATE campsite in a “sleepy barangay” here was an ambitious project, Defensor said.

But there is nothing impossible if we are committed and determined to achieve such an ambition, he added.

Defensor said the provincial government will rehabilitate the rough roads toward the campsite and will create a “shortcut” route from the site to the national road.

GODUCATE operates in seven Asians countries — Singapore, Philippines, India, China, Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia./PN

(pl note that the area of the training center is 11.2 hectares and not 1.8 hectares as reported in this article)

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The trap of poverty

For urbanites in First World countries, it is perhaps correct to say that most will find it difficult to empathize with those who experience real poverty. Not that I can empathize any better or had become wiser after my short visit to a rural community in Laguna, Philippines, I think poverty is not just simply earning less than US$ 1 a day, or not having enough to eat as conventional wisdom would have us to believe. To me, poverty entraps families and the future generations of those who were caught by it.

This is a snapshot of a family caught in poverty. Typically, the parents have never been schooled. I was told that it is common for poor couples to have about 5 children (and I heard there was even a couple who had 16 children!). For the children who come from poor households, life can be tough. Because their parents do not have the means, they do not attend school. For them, living from hand-to-mouth becomes real day-to-day. Daily choices in life are dictated by survivability. By the age of seven, most children would have to work to contribute to their household. And for them, work could mean that they would have to go into the forest to look for fruits such as coconuts and bananas, which would be collected as food, or sold to a middleman. Remember, these children do not have the chance to find gainful employment in the city because they are uneducated and unskilled. Most of them will marry as early as fourteen years old, possibly to ease the pressure on their parents to provide for their needs. For these newly-weds, they would have to live from hand-to-mouth and here, the cycle starts again when they have children – that is 5 children on average.

Children at Laguna
Children at Laguna
A child who collected fruits in the forest
A child who collected fruits in the forest

So, this is how poverty looks like from a cyclical perspective. When it afflicts a community, it does look like a vicious cycle with no end in sight.