WELCOME
by Barry Doolittle, Barya Lang Web Page Design, Philippines
December 2004.
Many of you know me by name if not personally maybe because I began building Computer Based Training (CBT) before the word was invented (PLATO 1978). As I finish up 2004 I felt it appropriate to leave a message about what has been happening at our school for intrested people read.
2005 is here at last and I watch the celebration in full glory as the lights, fireworks, and music fill the air in the Philippines.
My heart has been with the Philippine people since 1986. In 2002 my dream of returning here to permanently retire became a reality. In actual fact, at age 57, I'm now putting in 12-hour days and enjoying some of the hardest working conditions of my life as I teach web page design.
In the Philippines family values are strong and the orphaned children can be placed in many homes when the families that take them can afford the extra mouth to feed. Extended family members, neighbors, and even total strangers will take in an orphaned child. Many times this involves sharing the already short supply of rice and adding one more child to a bed already filled with 3 or more children. Often times the good Christian family risks their own economic survival when they take in an orphan. The Philippine government cannot be relied upon to save these lives, so the people do it out of their love for their neighbor. These "virtual" orphanages have been the ONLY "safety net" for orphaned Philippine children for generations.
Finding myself better at teaching business, computer, and marketing skills than at changing diapers I started a free school in 2003. Philippine young people learn to make Internet web pages and sell Internet advertising to support their family units. Internet access is now available throughout the country and the youth are excited about getting involved. Previously small family business were restricted to peddling merchandise, driving jeepneys, generally involving large investments, long hours, and high risk with very little return.
For those of us that have watched the Internet grow, believed Bill Gates when he explained about the computer business and "critical mass", there is little need to talk about how the computer business is bigger than any one company can provide for. There is no competition and we, the training people, will never really be out of work. It does not matter how many people get involved, nor from what country they come from. Every new web page designer in the Philippines will mean someone in the other parts of the world will be able to "resell" those hard worked hours at a profit to themselves and still lower costs to the consumer.
Today a $100 dollar investment in the Philippines (to buy a very used personal computer) and the proper training in programming Internet web pages or selling Internet web pages can return a young person $7 to $8 per day. Compare that to the $2 to $5 per day that would otherwise be expected, if they could find a job, and you can see how "Education is the Key".
Currently the Philippine society has millions of people that want work of any kind. College graduates here endure 100 plus qualified people applying for each job. Many of my students have held BS degrees from great schools and have remained unemployed for 2 or 3 years before finding web page design opportunities through our training. I do not want to turn these people into "receivers of welfare". I want to give them the education to contribute on an International basis with the huge market need for "custom designed Internet web page advertising".
To achieve that goal my students need real people (clients/customers) to practice making web page designs. For struggling business here in the Philippines we make many Internet web pages for "free" just to allow the students to develop their skills.
See our samples and advertisement at: http://www.oocities.org/barya_lang and learn about how we are making "Individual Philanthropy" work. My often used statement is "What the world needs now, more than any other time in the history of mankind, is Individual Philanthropy." My students believe that completely.
In short, a $6 payment will a custom designed web page that search engines will find, that will load fast, and be easy to update. We currently put the pages on Geocities/Yahoo (free hosting) and allow/encourage clients to copy the pages to anywhere they want. Of course, by tolerating the Geocities/Yahoo ads they can leave their pages up there for years to come with NO ADDITIONAL cost above the one time payment of $6 (300 Philippine Pesos for the local Philippine market). By the way, Barya Lang in the Philippine language (Tagalog) means "small change or loose change only". In other words, the price is so small it is almost free.
Thanks,
Barry Doolittle, Instructor
Barya Lang Web Page Design
Philippines
(And maybe we will be your "wholesale web design provider" by time 2006 comes.)
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