Last week Goducate opened another literacy center in a swamp in Sabah for poor kids who cannot go to school. Because of the dampness of the swampy soil, the school-house had to be built on stilits.
Goducate provided 500 Malaysian Ringgit (about US$150) for some building material and the community chipped in to build their very own school-house.
The pride of the village
On the opening day, 240 students and their parents filled the school house patiently waiting for the Opening Program to begin.
Full house
Suddenly there was a loud cracking sound! There was panic as students scrambled to flee from the cracking floor planks. Thankfully no one was hurt and no one fell into the swampy soil below!
Cracked floor boards
When all the kids were safely out of the building, one of the village elders said in the native language “The show must go on! We must persevere!”
The opening program continues on safer ground
The model farm in Laguna, Philippines was a month-old operation when I visited it with the directors of Goducate in August. Its purpose is to demonstrate to the poor to produce vegetables for their own consumption. The first thought that came to mind, as I listened to the Goducate farm worker who showed me around, was that this place is a living lab. I noticed that each vegetable plot and… Continue reading
This is a story of a boy in Laguna which will probably remain untold had the Goducate team not visited him at his home. One would have thought that Ian Mendoza is 12 years old simply because of his child-like appearance. But he is actually 18 years old. Ian suffers from meningioma – a non-aggressive cancer of the central nervous system. A slow-growing brain tumor – probably the size of… Continue reading
For urbanites in First World countries, it is perhaps correct to say that most will find it difficult to empathize with those who experience real poverty. Not that I can empathize any better or had become wiser after my short visit to a rural community in Laguna, Philippines, I think poverty is not just simply earning less than US$ 1 a day, or not having enough to eat as conventional… Continue reading
Recent Comments