By Jade Angelo Gascon

Among the problems that confront the Philippines today are economic insufficiency, lack of opportunities, increasing criminality, political unrest and environmental injustice. Many Christian churches and organizations recognize that they should play a role in mitigating the causes and effects of these problems. However, they often fall short in producing ideas and conjuring practicable solutions that would make them efficient agents of change on a social level. A lot of Christian churches and organizations usually lack mechanisms and manpower to come up with potent and concrete solutions that would address these problems mainly because of their inclination to spiritualize issues at the expense of “works” without which faith is dead.

CSRSME Chairman Mr. Ben Quiñones Jr. discusses bayanihan economy principles to a diverse group of people's organizations

The On Eagle’s Wings Foundation (OEWF) Christian in its values and foundation, held a consultation meeting on March 13, 2010 in cooperation with CSRSME Asia (Coalition of Socially Responsible Small and Medium Enterprises in Asia), and KAMMMPI (Kapisanan ng Magsasaka, Manggagawa at Magsasaka Inc. – Association of Farmers, Workers and Fishermen of the Philippines Inc.), in order to elaborate on the Foodbank project which aims to strengthen food security for the benefit of farmers and urban poor families.

The 313 participants (89 males, 224 females) came from various cities in MetroManila such as Caloocan, Makati, Manila, Parañaque, Pasay, Pasig, Quezon City and San Juan, and nearby provinces such as Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal.

Over 300 delegates participated in the consultation. Here they join the community singing.

They also represented 61 people’s organizations coming from diverse backgrounds: from transport groups to churches, microfinance groups, cooperatives, vendors’ associations and urban poor organizations.

Ptr. Ed De Guzman, Chairman of On Eagle’s Wings Development Foundation (Philippines) and Board Member of CSRSME Asia, exhorted delegates and organizers to pursue the Philippines’s prophetic destiny to be a blessed nation of God that will bless other nations as well by consecrating themselves to the purposes of God.

He also added that the diverse body of Christ in the Philippines must unite toward the fulfillment of this vision. And socially responsible organizations and cooperatives can also be used by the Lord to advance his Kingdom dominion.

Part of the program gave participants the opportunity to interact with panelists who are knowledgable on solidarity economy practices and CSRSME's advocacies. Among the panelists were Ptr. Ed De Guzman, Mr. Ben Quiñones Jr., entrepreneur Myrna Villanueva, and community leaders Ptr. Jun Pasagui and Ptr. Mike Cabahug

OEWF and CSRSME Asia, both socially responsible organizations, can be used by God to end poverty in the Philippines. A significant, concrete solution that the group offers are paradigm-shifting training courses that transform people’s mindsets into entrepreneurial and innovative ones. This kind of worldview empowers societies to end poverty.

In addition, OEWF offers sustained discipleship under its Social Entrepreneurship and Discipleship Program (SEDP) and the mentorship of socially responsible individuals. The Foodbank project is one of the avenues for entrepreneurial discipleship.

The Foodbank will seek to revolutionize the distribution of agricultural produce into urban communities by eliminating exploitative cartels and oppressive economic practices that have been salient features of Philippine agricultural economy.

With the help of another collaborating organization, the Shared Vision Cooperative (SVC), the Foodbank project shall form area coordination clusters that will strategize for and organize subsidiary Foodshops. The Foodshop Coordinators shall be trained in handling and managing the program, and in mobilizing communities that will unite to secure access to affordable agricultural products.

SVC’s Bayanihan Cash Card (BaCC) shall be instrumental in facilitating the Foodbank financial transactions and in mentoring both farmer producers and urban consumers to be wise financial stewards.

Microfinance groups OK (Opportunity Kauswagan) Bank, a founding member of the largest Christian social development network in the country, and ASKI (Alalay sa Kaunlaran sa Gitnang Luzon) have pledged support to the program by providing services such as deposits and loans and other personality improvement training.

Should the Foodbank project find success in the hands of socially responsible united communities, the world shall witness in the Philippines an unprecedented economic revolution initiated by Christians who are in loving pursuit of the cause of God for the Philippines.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

by Jhen Bandojo

Our team is called the “Sweet Seven Teens” because we are seven teenagers and we produce sweet products like chocolates and refrigerated cake made from Graham.  We tried marketing a lot of products like banana chips, peanuts, hotcakes, quailed eggs in our effort to meet customer needs and wants.

I’ve learned a lot of things with my team through our subject in Sales Management. We were challenged to reach our marketing goal of Php 45,000 in sales.  We pursued our target customers and strove hard to reach our goal. I’ve learned that you have to be patient, honest, cooperative and have a good relationship with your customers , so that you will be successful in what you are doing and gain a lot of valued customers.

The members of our team are very cooperative and supportive to each other. We were not just sharing our ideas but we also listened to the opinion and suggestions of each other, and after the deliberations, we come up with a good concept.

Sometimes our ideas were in conflict and we have heavy arguments among each other on small things,  but later on, we settle our differences and move on. we are not just a “team”, we are also friends. We do believe that in business you have to have good interpersonal relationships with your customers in order to become a successful entreperneur someday.

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.