Tagum Coop tops in financial literacy

Home-grown Tagum Cooperative recently received its newest award as the nation’s leading cooperative in implementing a financial literacy program in schools.

         

 Tagum Cooperative Youth  Program Officer Clyjenee Dairo this morning revealed that Tagum Cooperative was cited as  the “2011 Top Aflatoun Cooperative”  during the 35th general assembly of the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO) and 11th Coop Congress on May 25 in Cebu City.

       

   Among the 100  Aflatoun cooperative implementers,  Tagum Cooperative was cited for its active and well-supported implementation of the financial literacy program which had solicited a strong backing from the Department of Education Tagum City Schools Division.

    

      Aflatoun is a concept of “teaching children about social values, and rights and responsibilities coupled with basic financial education.”

       Tested in India 18 years ago, the Aflatoun concept is also aimed at facilitating the “inclusion of Child Social and Financial Education into formal and informal education systems as a recognition of child’s rights.”

      Tagum Cooperative Board of Directors chairperson, Norma Pereyras cited the Aflatoun as one of the major youth programs of Tagum Cooperative  which aims to instill savings consciousness among children and youth whom it wants to mold as “financially secured leaders who can make a difference.”         

      DepEd Tagum City Schools Division Superintendent  Nenita Lumaad calls  the Aflatoun implementation in Tagum City as Financial Literacy for the Youth (FLY)  which  the division started rolling out in seven Tagum City public schools in July last year.

  

    Tagum Cooperative with DepEd Tagum City Schools Division pilot-tested it in  Tagum City public elementary schools particularly in  Rizal,  Mankilam,  Pilot, La Filipina, Laureta, Apokon and Catalan.

  

    From 2,167 in November last year,  Aflatoun membership reached 4,567 members as of March this year, generating P1.1 million savings.  

  

    The figure, however, is just a fraction of the P30,664,122 total savings (as of March 2012) from the 24,199 young savers of Tagum Cooperative.

   

   Dairo, however,  projected Aflatoun membership and savings to pick up this school year 2012-2013 as Tagum Cooperative  sets to roll out to six more public schools in Davao City, particularly in central schools of Mintal, Tugbok, Talomo and elementary schools of San Roque, Porras, and in Don Juan Elementary School.

  

    “We are targeting 90 percent membership of the total population of pupils in (Aflatoun) project sites,” she said in an interview.

  

     Tagum City DepEd Schools Division plans of bringing  the Aflatoun Program to public seven secondary schools in the city now that  a module of teaching it among high school students has already been produced.

   

   Lumaad  looks at financial literacy as a shift  from honing students to become mere employees but employers as well. She wants to  arm students  with skills they can bank on to become financially secure aside from excelling academically.  

     Meanwhile, Lumaad recalled how Aflatoun started in Tagum City as she noted the financial difficulties among public school teachers.

  

   “They didn’t know how to budget their money,” she recalled her observation among teachers in her division. “As it would be too late to teach the teachers, we thought of instilling financial literacy among the children,” she said.

    After 11 years in implementation, Aflatoun  is seen to have etched savings consciousness among its elementary-pupil members . 

  

  “If they receive money on special occasions, they now think of how much to save instead of thinking what to buy,”  she said citing testimonies of Aflatoun members in one of the Aflatoun educational activities

  

   In regularly collecting savings deposits in schools, Tagum Cooperative roving teller Syvel Condor also noted  that Aflatoun members  have come to learn to fill in deposits at an early age, and that they are regularly putting in savings to their accounts.

  

   “They fill in deposit slips, we enter their savings and print them on their own passbooks, be they P5.00 or few pesos from their daily allowances,” she said. (PIA-XI/ Jeanevive Duron-Abangan)

Fun way of teaching leadership, entrepreneurship

 About 250 members of  the TC Youth Laboratory Coop take part in the Summer Saya 2012.  Other participants are members of Youth Savers, Aflatoun Program and Power Teens.

TAGUM CITY, Davao del Norte (PIA):    Teaching leadership and instilling entrepreneurship among young savers was made enjoyable  and less serious  through the Summer Saya that Tagum Cooperative organized in May 18.

Bannering the theme,  “Enhancing the Cooperative Movement through Youth Involvement,” the 2012 sixth Summer Saya of Tagum Cooperative opened three sessions on  art workshop for five to seven years of age, building youth leaders for eight years old to 12 years of age, and building entrepreneurial skills for 13 to 17 years of age coop members.
    

 Paint workshop

The Summer Saya also engaged participants in various games and dance workshop.

It drew 252 young savers who were among the combined 24,199 members of Tagum Coop Youth Laboratory, Power Teens, Youth Savers and Aflatoun Program. 

            Those in  the youngest  age group got  smirched in painting subjects of  their likings while the eight to 12 years of age listened to stories and talks about  the values of “cooperativism” and leadership.

            Loren-Jane Remeisca D. Abangan realized that cooperative means “cooperation”.  “So we have to cooperate for the cooperative to succeed,” she said.

            Impressed on her mind was a message she got in one of the lectures. “Pareho lang pala ang mga tao sa mata ng Diyos.  (People are the same before the eyes of God.),” she said.

            In her talks about entrepreneurship, resource person Necitas Lazaga of the Department of Trade and Industry Davao del Norte Provincial Office, taught participants of 13 to  17 years of age, the need to conquer fear and to examine oneself.

          She encouraged them to draw their own ambitions in life, to believe in oneself, to get in the company with positive people, and to dream  and  act on realizing their ambitions.

            Lazaga opened up their minds to  the possibilities of becoming entrepreneurs, and not just end up as employees after completing academic studies to gain a much financially secure status. 

            “It  would be much better that you have a job, and at the same time, you run a business,”  she said.

            Syvel Condor  who was once a Tagum Coop youth saver  but now a roving teller, appreciated the learning she got from previous Summer Saya sessions as the experience made her understand the relevance of engaging in business.

“No matter how small our business may be, but if we have a positive mindset, this can do good to improve our lives,” she said Syvel Condor

During her college days, Condor used to sell beads accessories that she did herself, earning her income she put into her savings account. “As youth savers, we learn entrepreneurship; we know the importance of saving money, of raising money,” she said.

Tagum Cooperative Chairperson of the Board of Directors Norma Pereyras explained that Summer Saya was not just mere fun-fare  but it was a way of developing leadership and entrepreneurship.

Tagum Cooperative had embraced, as part of its mission, to  develop financially secured leaders who can take on the  principles and values through the cooperative run its operation.

Pereyras said that the cooperative now takes a paradigm shift of instilling savings consciousness so the young members can stay away from getting into so much debts with loans.

“We are encouraging them to save and if they have enough savings, they can go into business. W e are also teaching them financial literacy along with leadership,” she said.  (Jeanevive Duron-Abangan) 

(photos are courtesy of Tagum Cooperative

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