Just 9 weeks ago, when I visited our Goducate Learning Centers in Sabah we had about 500 students enrolled (it’s impossible to give exact figures even though we register our students because parents sneak in additional kids all the time and most of our classrooms do not have walls to keep out additional kids!)
Last week week when I visited Sabah again, I heard that the present enrolment is over 1100 students – and expanding by the day. It’s just too painful to turn away mums and their children who have walked an hour in the hot sun!
Goducate had earlier set a target of 1500 students by the end of 2010 but last week we had to re-set our target to 2500 student in 10 centers by the end of this year – if funds are available. There is no shortage of children who want to learn to read and write and no shortage of mums who are willing to be trained to teach their own children. The bottle-neck is funds to pay for school supplies, teacher training, teacher allowances, visas, etc.
2500 students sounds a lot but it is really a drop in the bucket because it is estimated that there possibly 500,000 children who are unable to attend school because they are “undocumented aliens” from war-torn southern Philippines. This is possibly one of the largest unrecognized “refugee” (for want of a better word) groups in the world. Half a million children who grow up without education or discipline will definitely be huge social problem for their host country – and eventually for the neighbouring countries.
Let’s do our part to help these poor people to help themselves.
Goducate believes that every child deserves a decent education and a decent start in life!
From the 11th to the 23rd of January, I ate, slept, worked, and chatted with the children at the Goducate Children’s Home in Preyop, Cambodia. A typical day for a child in the home would go along something like this—wake up at crack of dawn to do assigned tasks or chores, have breakfast, attend school (in English) and Khmer classes, then back to doing assigned tasks in various part of… Continue reading
A nursing school that came to know about Goducate’s community work has chosen the Goducate Learning Center in Mabakan, Calaun, to be a center for practical training for their students. Hence 10 nursing students spent January training the locals in basic health awareness and doing health screenings.
Training session
Some 30 people, mostly mothers, attended… Continue reading
A fortnight ago parents of the children attending the Goducate Learning Center in Lalao, Laguna, were brought together to attend a session with their children. The session, called Mama and Me, was intended to emphasize to the parents the importance of good communication with their children and of teaching their children and supervising them while they do their homework and assignments. For the children, the intention was to impress on… Continue reading
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