Teach 15,000 rural kids to save and invest

With the shared goal of positively impacting the lives of more young people, the NATCCO Children and Youth and the Aflatoun International initiated a special project in collaboration with some of our best collaborators, trainers, and writers — the Aflayouth Integration Guide for Educators.

This project was materialized last July 24-28, 2023 through the Aflatoun Integration Writeshop with the help and aid of 5 educators, namely Dr. Eduard C. Amoguis, Ms. Jonalyn Pasquito, Ms. Sheila May I. Montojo, Mr. Rhenan H. Nisperos, and Ms. Hermarie T. Esmael, who hailed from the city of Tagum and all trainers, officers, and teacher coordinators of Tagum Cooperative. 

The objective of this project is to help equip the teachers who will be implementing the Aflayouth program with the necessary knowledge and skills to integrate the program in their classrooms. As a relatively new offering of NATCCO and Aflatoun International, the Aflayouth program is designed for the youth between the ages of 16-24 with relevant modules on entrepreneurship and employability, along with social and financial literacy.

The NATCCO Children and Youth team, along with the writers, ensured that the Aflayouth curriculum is aligned with the Department of Education’s Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELCs) for easier and effective integration and maximizing learning outcomes.

This initiative is set to be distributed starting this year to our trained Aflayouth Teachers nationwide and to be shared to the entire Aflatoun Global network. And with this, we would also like to extend our deepest gratitude to the DepEd Division of Tagum City and Credit Suisse - APAC for their guidance and support.

The NATCCO Children and Youth, in collaboration with Lamac Multi-Purpose Cooperative (LMPC) Youth Planet Laboratory Cooperative, achieved remarkable success during their event on February 10-11, 2023, in Pinamungajan, Cebu.

A total of 13 partner cooperatives enthusiastically participated in our Study Learning Visit, aiming to immerse themselves and share LMPC's best practices in youth engagement and cooperative membership.

During the event, 34 participants had the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with LabCoop's product production, including Concoction Making, Cacao Grafting, Vermiculture, and Buffalo Feeding. LMPC Youth Planet Lab Coop members also showcased their talents with a captivating dance performance that welcomed our participants.

Through this benchmarking experience, our goal is to inspire all cooperatives to explore and implement innovative ideas that can attract more youth to the cooperative sector. We extend our heartfelt thanks to all who joined us in this exciting and educational journey. Rest assured, this is just the beginning of many more fruitful collaborations to come!

Til' next time, Global Givers!

• Connect_JanFeb_2023.pdf (PDF)
  

Each year, NATCCO and the NATCCO Children and Youth Team prepares a celebration for the Global Money week. For this year, it was a fun International Aflatoun Day indeed with our dear Aflatouners!

We are grateful for those who seek new learnings and attended our special celebration last March 24, 2023 with the title "Sow The Seeds of Your Future" via Zoom. Our gathering ignited the spirit of cooperativism to deepen social and financial values at a young age. Though we are still on a virtual setup, we can still feel the enthusiasm from our Youth participants through the screen and emojis!

In the times on climate change, we are very particular in trying to engage the youth to become change-makers and green advocates in their community. To further inspire them, the team  invited the Thriving Plant-suiasts Russel, John Renor, and Zeejay to share sharing their #PlantASeedJourney as climate change advocates of Gubat St. Anthony Cooperative. 

And as our highlight for the event, we had NATCCO's KRC Research and Development Specialist, Melvin, to inspire the Aflatouners to (1) Start young, Save young (2) Learn by Earning and (3) Save then Trade through his presentation.

This has been a successful celebration and we hope to do this again and more next year!

'Til the next update!

It was a bright and sunny day when the Aflatoun International Team visited the Philippines to meet and talk with the implementers of our newest Aflayouth Program. This was matched, of course, with a warm reception from the students and educators!

Last March 6-16, 2023, NATCCO Children and Youth Unit Head, Hazel Ann Modino and Training Officer, Hazel Ann Leñida accompanied Kristel Casimiro, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, and Elisabetta Spoldi, Communications Specialist from Aflatoun International, on their visit to three out of five Aflayouth Partners namely Most Holy Rosary Multi-Purpose Cooperative from Rodriguez in Rizal, Sacred Heart Savings Cooperative from Galimuyod in Ilocos Sur, both from Luzon and Barbaza Multi-Purpose Cooperative in Antique, located in the Visayas Region.

The agenda of each meeting was to discuss the implementation of the Aflayouth Program and its modules with the teachers, students, and coordinators of the partner cooperatives. This visit was done to gather information, facts, and data to know and measure the effectiveness and relevance of the Aflayouth program in the current educational curriculum, especially in the modules of Employability and Entrepreneurship.

During the visit, a total of six schools were visited:

1. Kasiglahan National High School

2. Burgos National High School

3. Candon High School

4. Salcedo National High School

5. Barbaza National High School

6. St. Anthony High School of Barbaza

We would like to express our gratitude to the CEOs and coordinators of MHRMPC, SHSC, and BMPC for making this possible, as well as to the principals, teachers, and students of the schools visited and the Department of Education in the divisions of Rizal, Ilocos Sur, Vigan City, and Antique for their warm hospitality.

And lastly, thank you for the time, Aflatoun International, for making sure that the Filipino Youth will be empowered socially and financially! Till next time!

Our learning from the National Youth Leadership Training did not stop there!

Last November 5-6, 2022, we gathered all young leaders in the Queen City of the South—Cebu City for the the Youth Leadership Training for aspiring entrepreneur and young business owners alike.

The Youth Entrepreneurship Training is an avenue for our 31 participants to increase competency as they desire to venture into the business world. It highlighted skills such as self-mastery, and product promotion in the traditional and/or digital market. We've had loads of topics discussed to unleash the potential of our future young entrepreneurs. 

Building an enterprise starts from within the value and character we discover and grow, to fostering a creative and entrepreneurial mindset up to the vision we pursue. All these are the foundation for learning the technicalities of entrepreneurship. It also promoted active participation between group members through the tasks set intended for camaraderie and team effort.

It was a back-to-back activity along with the Leadership Training and our team has witnessed how enthusiastic the participants were after more than two years of seeing and learning in a virtual space. We hope to conduct more of these this year!

Thanks for reading, Global Givers!