Recently one of Goducate’s Indonesian partners invited me to visit her work in central Sumatra, with the view of starting Goducate centers there. Though Sumatra is a neighbour of Singapore, it was my first visit to this island. It is strange that though I’d visited many distant, hard to reach places, I had never visited this large, easy to reach friendly neighbour. In fact, most Singaporeans, who are some of the most travelled people in the world, have never even considered going to Sumatra. For many of us, Sumatra probably conjures images of tsunamis and the terrorists.
When I landed in the busy, modern airport of Pekan Baru, the capital of the province of Riau, I realised that this was a rich province. The government buildings in the city were some of the most impressive and modern buildings that I’d even seen in Indonesia. As we drove out into the country-side, I noticed a large pipeline hugging the side of the road. It looked like any other pipeline except that it was obviously carrying some hot liquid because the rain drops that fell on it were instantly converted into steam. It was an oil-pipeline that carried oil from the oil-wells to the refinery. Besides this pipeline that followed me for over almost 200 kilometers, everywhere I turned I saw endless palm-oil plantations. Riau is indeed an oil rich province!
However, though Riau is blessed with natural riches, the people do not seem to be benefitting much from this bounty. Foreign companies (eg. Caltex/Chevron) or large Indonesian companies (eg. Pertamina) seem to be the main benefactors.
The purpose of my visit was to see how Goducate could help the rural children. I visited a school which our Indonesian Goducate partner had started. It was a little elementary school with 150 students, situated among palm-oil trees. I was told that the land on which the school stood belonged to an oil company and that under the school was the oil well which was being tapped by the oil company!
It was a well-built school whose construction had been funded by kind Koreans. The school was well run. They teachers were dedicated and caring. However, the school lacked teaching-aids (eg. educational posters, library books) and equipment (eg. dvd players, computers). These deficiencies can easily be rectified. Overall, I was impressed with the quality of education that these rural Indonesians were receiving.
My conclusion at the end of my short trip to Sumatra is that Goducate may be able to help in just two areas of education – English and computers. This was also the conclusion of our Indonesian partners.
After I came back from Pekan Baru, another Indonesian co-worker (unrelated to the one that invited me to Pekan Baru) told me that his former university friends in Medan (northern Sumatra) were inviting Goducate to visit Medan in April, with a view to start Goducate centers in rural villages.
Two visits in Sumatra in three months! I must be making up for lost time!!
Goducate, with its mission of helping young adults in China to help themselves, has opened a second Lifepegs student activity center in southern China. The new center is located in one of the city’s major campus districts with a student population of 60,000 to 70,000 from 8 universities.
The core team of 3 native workers trained by Goducate worked hard to renovate and get the center started within 28… Continue reading
Five of the first batch of trainees who completed the Goducate training program for basketball officials did not have to wait long to get their first jobs. And the jobs were not for matches at village level (where they had done their training), but at inter-university level. This job opportunity for out-of-school youth arose with the 10-day visit of the Indonesian Youth Team from West Java to play against eight… Continue reading
Goducate believes in encouraging the students at the literacy centers to read. However, it has not been easy to set up a library, or somewhere to store books securely. For one thing the centers are scattered over a wide area. For another, many centers are the living rooms of the locals into which the students squeeze for their lessons, while others are very basic structures consisting just of a roof… Continue reading
I wonder if you have a settled office in Indonesia, maybe in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. So any parties/organisations which want to make cooperation with you may have easy access to communicate directly. Where is it Goducate office in Jakarta?
Interesting. But is not part of Goducate
. I’ve seen the same soap making project in the elementary school where my son is studying, here in San Pablo. I wonder if it also a part of your work?