Three hundred and ten children! Where did they all come from? Good question. How did they find their way to the Goducate Learning Center? Better question.
I was sitting on one of the front row of chairs reserved for our special visitors that morning. This is the year’s school opening and the nine classes are giving presentations – yes, nine classes! Each class wanted to present something. Can’t blame them. It was the only time for parents to see their children performing on our simple stage. And that day, it was not just a performance. Their children are singing, reading, dancing before Singaporean audience!
As all eyes are on the children on stage, I watched the parents sitting behind us. In their faces I read, it does not really matter that they do not fully understand the English songs. What matters is that their kids understood. Their kids are speaking, writing, reading and singing it. Their applause were thunderous. Every parent has the right to be very proud. The bondage of illiteracy has been broken and for most of them, this breakthrough came after the fourth and third generation.
I look at the kids. The tears come flooding again. They are so different than the last time I first saw them. They know now how to line up. Most of them are very comfortable performing on stage. Even the tiny new ones would stop sniffling and join heartily once the music starts. I love it when they converse with me. I love it when I see excitement and hope in their eyes.
I remember their stories. And I am grateful for the opportunity that came our way. Our kids will have a chance in life. A chance to rise above the oppressing circumstances of poverty, hard core poverty.
I glanced at my friend seated a couple of seats away from me. What was in her heart was written all over her face. And the tears just keep on coming.
How do kids find their way to a Goducate Learning Center? For as long as there are people like my friend who realizes how privileged she is and her kids because life is kinder to them. And how privileged she is to have the chance to change a child’s circumstance. And how she can take part in giving not only one child a future but a community of children a future, one after another.
The visitors left that day. But the singing, reading, writing, dancing continues each day. And how beautiful that is.
to be continued
