Mary Rose Rontal is working as an Assisting Professional in a USAID-funded project that focus on implementing strategic actions for environmental management while observing the principles of transparency, accountability and participatory decision-making in the local government units…
Feeding the piggy bank is what I and my husband taught Amyrrh, our one-year old son. We save every ten-peso coin we collect during the day from buying something or paying a fare. We save it in my baby’s piggy bank ever since he was still in my tummy. Now, he’s already enjoying the feeding time of his “piggy”.
However, I can personally say that my or my family’s saving habit is poor because we only save every time we got a ten-peso coin, otherwise, no savings happened.
As an economist, I know that savings should come first before spending your money. Yet, I am not practicing it. The idea to save comes across my mind every time I can think of something I want to have in the future like house and lot, car, clothes and Amyr’s education. Bad thing is, the moment I received my salary, no thought of saving. All I can think of are the payments for my debts, my baby’s milk, the showing on the cinema, the food I craved to eat prior to my payday, groceries for the week, transportation expenses, board and lodging expenses, latest gadgets, everything except the thing called Savings.
I tend to ask how, when and where to save my money. How to start? When to start? And where is the most secured place to save? I already heard several financial institutions that did not succeed, got the money of their investors and become thief of the night, or they just simply bankrupted because of bad management. The uncertainty of financial institutions makes me anxious to save and invest in any particular financial institution.
It was then during the BSV workshop that I appreciated more the importance of Saving. I was enlightened with the idea of saving not just for myself but for the economy, more importantly for the small and medium enterprises, which I know is the “backbone” of the Philippine economy.
As an individual, I am not quite aware of the specific things I can do to help achieve a better state of nation, but thanks to my dear friend Jerick who invited me to join the BSV Workshop. It is very interesting to know that I am sharing the same vision with my groupmates and with other groups. As a Christian, as an economist and as an environmentalist, I was delighted to know that all of us hope for a “God-fearing” nation, a stable economy and a sustainable environment. These three aspects are underscored and for me, these characterized a perfect country. Though we are different individuals, yet we found out that we have common hopes for our country and that we are not just driven by our selfish desires but of what is good for the Filipinos a whole. That was indeed a “shared vision”.
I was also awakened on the topic “Learning Organization”, which made me realize my learning disabilities that I am not quite aware of for a long time. No wonder we hardly reach our goals in life. Now, I’m excited to share it with my colleagues.
As a whole, the one-day workshop on “Building Shared Vision” was indeed very informative. In fact, I would like to know more about the technical side of the cooperative, its management and operation, how to become a member, what are the logistical requirements to become an official member of the cooperative and the sustainable mechanisms of the organization. I think this should be discussed more during the Pre-Membership Education Seminar (PMES) which I believe is one of the requirements prior to being a member of any cooperative.
Further, I am glad that this concept was introduced to Filipinos. Though savings, credit and investments are not new to me but combining the three, with emphasis to “savings” in order to achieve a “Solidarity Economy” is relatively a new and fascinating concept. It is a good news that I find it very interesting to share with my networks of family, friends and colleagues. Indeed, I myself even want to conduct the same workshop to groups of people I know. Aside from that, I also want to see myself as part of the “think tank” of the CSRSMEAsia and be able to contribute in the development of concepts and designs that are worth implementing for the development of our community.
