Goducate believes in helping needy Asians help themselves. Therefore, it believes in starting projects that are eventually self-sustaining. The exception to this is when Goducate helps out in emergency situations (eg, earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, floods).
Therefore, Goducate Training Center, where future Goducate workers are trained, must set the example of being self-sustaining. This will be a big challenge because it costs a lot of money to maintain an 11 hectare site, with multiple facilities on it. Furthermore, there is the need to feed, house, and train many trainees (hopefully 100 full-time trainees by 2012). We also need to feed about 100 teenagers from poor surrounding villages each weekend who come to the training center for weekend training in lifeskills such as discipline, teamwork, leadership, cultivating good habits, etc. Then there is the need to pay our faculty of agricultural lecturers and trainers, and teachers in English, literacy, computer skills, foreign language, and cross-cultural knowledge.
One way to help is to produce as much of our own food as possible. We have managed to grow high-yield rice that provides all our present rice needs. Our own vegetable gardens and fruit trees can produce most of our vegetable and fruit needs, with some extra for sale. Our impounding pond has an estimated 15,000 tilapia fish—which can provide most of our needs for animal protein.
However, we still need to raise funds to pay for the other expenses mentioned in para 2. We believe that we can raise this by renting out our facilities to corporations, institutions, schools, and even individuals for their special events. For example, a corporation may rent our multipurpose hall and facilities for their training or bonding event, or a university may rent our huts, dipping pools, and activity fields for a special event,
It is much more convenient to rely on donations to maintain the training center, but if we can’t help ourselves, we will not be able to train our workers to help others to help themselves.
All purpose gymnasium
Dipping pools for rent
Revenue-generating zip-line
I visited the Goducate Children’s Home in Cambodia again recently to see what new strategies could be applied to significantly improve food sufficiency for the children and staff at the Home. One of these focuses on rice production at two separate lowland parcels with an aggregate area of 0.8 hectare.
The past attempts in growing rice at the Home led to yields that were dismally low because of poor… Continue reading
Earlier this month, Goducate Children’s Home, Cambodia, welcomed 5 new children into the “family”. These children, Nat, Lynn, Kanya, Mon and Nia, come from Battambang, a 12-hour drive away from the Home. They come from very poor homes and have received little education. They came to the Home in hope of a better education and a better life in the future.
The new children were taken for medical check-ups… Continue reading
Since Goducate aims to help needy Asians help themselves, Bangladesh is a country that has attracted its attention.
Recently, Bangladesh was in the news because of a horrific factory collapse that killed over 1100 garment workers. I was in the country when that accident took place.
Bangladesh is the most densely populated large country. It has about 160 million people (half of US population) squeezed into a land… Continue reading
it very fun @ GODUCATE! esp.the Zipline @ their Amazing race!