Teach 15,000 rural kids to save and invest

A great day to all of you Global Givers! Did you know that for this whole month of July, here in the Philippines, we are celebrating the National Nutrition Month? Our Department of Education is supporting the nationwide celebration initiated by the National Nutrition Council, and encourages the schools to join in the celebration too!

Some of our partner cooperatives have also prepared fun, relevant, and educational activities for the children and youth just in time for the National Nutrition Month. In the province of Bataan in Central Luzon, Watchlife Workers Multi-Purpose Cooperative has organized a mini-marathon for their Laboratory Cooperative members to join in. According to their Aflatoun Coordinator, the main objective of this activity is to encourage the younger individuals to have fun while exercising.

Watchlife Workers Multi-Purpose Cooperative, as a part of its service to their community, has also conducted a program before the start of classes to hype up the incoming students of their partner schools. They have given school bags equip with supplies to Grade 1 students and offered free haircut, and declare the great news that they’ll be granting scholarships to students with a 80% total average grade by the end of the school year. The WWMPC believes that this act could encourage the students to work hard and persevere in their studies.

Til next update, keep saving!

It's the month of June! In the Philippines, this marks the start of the rainy season and the start of the classes. Our Department of Education have announced that the official start of the school year will be on June 13. We, in the Children and Youth team, have a number of activities to organize for this school year. Of course, with our mission of teaching the children about their rights and responsibilities put into special consideration.

Some of you might be thinking, “How will they even be able to teach these young girls and boys their rights when there are a million of them in the Philippines? That seems impossible.” Reaching out to all of them is really impossible: that would be the case if our team is the only one working to attain it. But with the assistance of other like-minded organizations and individuals (the schools, trainers, the teachers, cooperatives, and all of you, Global Givers) we believe that it is possible.

For this school year, we’ll continue coordinating and inviting different cooperatives all over the country to empower and educate the Children and youth in their area. As a matter-of-fact, we have conducted several orientations in the hopes of encouraging them to join us in this global movement. Cluster orientation in Central Visayas (Region 7) and Eastern Visayas (Region 8) last March, in Zamboanga Peninsula (Region IX) and Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) for the month of April, Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) last May and in Central Luzon (Region 3) this June.

All through-out the year, we are also conducting training for our teachers. This is an important process for our goal to be reached, because our teachers are the ones who have the direct influence over the children in schools. They are like a sculptor, enhancing and transforming something into a masterpiece, which in their situation, the children’s mind and skills.

Another activity we’ll do is the Training of Trainers. We are currently in the process of inviting our partner cooperatives for a Trainers’ Training this coming August 10-12. The goal of this activity is to increase the number of individuals who would enlighten and train the teachers before they go on and empower the children. We’ve been conducting a Training of Trainings for three years now and we’ve had two batches of trainers who we invite to join us in facilitating trainings and reaching out to teachers more effectively.

We are halfway through the year 2016 and these are our achievement and plans so far. There will be more by the end of this year, we're sure.

Till next update, keep saving!