Lexon is from Indonesia (front row, extreme right). After finishing middle high school in his home place in Sumatra, Lexon migrated to the island of Batam to look for work. He found a manual job in an oil refinery.
I first met Lexon, over three years ago, when he lived in a little squatter shack opposite the refinery in which he worked. Like the other young men in that squatter area, he had come to Batam with dreams of a better life. However, without proper guidance he quickly fell into bad habits. Thankfully one of our workers Sam Quek took him under his wing and invited Lexon to live with him.
He was weaned from his bad habits, learned discipline, became more confident, learned to speak English and discovered that he could lead other young people. Today, he is in charge of the Goducate Learning Center in Batu Aji, Batam.
On the last day of our training when it was time to share our dreams, this is what he said in fluent English: “I was JUNK! Real JUNK! I smoked! I was a drunk! I played gambling! I was hopeless but today I have hope!”
There were tears in his eyes and in almost every one of our eyes! Then, one of our leaders who works with troubled teens in East Malaysia spoke up and said: “Lexon, you give me hope. I dream of all my boys becoming like you!!”
I could not hold back my tears as I remembered the old hopeless Lexon – and marvelled at how he is now a giver of hope to his students at Batu Aji and to all of us at Goducate.
Let’s help the helpless help themselves! Volunteer! Be a part of Team Goducate!
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
The team behind Goducate Training Centre
Goducate is undertaking to build a Training Centre in Iloilo… the 5th largest city in Philippines. The choice of the location, a city I have not heard of until recently, is well-thought out – the availability of good human resources, experts in various fields. No wonder, after Manila, Iloilo has the most number of Universities in the Philippines.
Much have been written… Continue reading
Bravo, i can see a sustainable mission here.