Teach 15,000 rural kids to save and invest

Liezel shares her experiences, challenges, and achievements in Tagum Cooperative as a Youth Coordinator. Follow her journey:

As a Youth Program Officer of Tagum Cooperative, I have played important roles in my youth department. Each one of us, along with my program coordinators, keep on moving despite the pandemic. We held each other’s hand for us to continue to achieve our goals.

My journey as Youth Program Officer in Tagum Cooperative is very fun and exciting since this is my 1st job to handle the youth, particularly the Aflatoun program. You meet different stakeholders, high and rank personalities, develop your communication skills and handle situations. It gives you the motivation to be more positive in dealing with people and young cooperators. I enjoy working on this program because you really need to encourage the youth to have savings at their young age. Although I encounter different attitudes of young people, I always look forward to these children becoming great savers of the cooperative.

Though I encounter challenges as Youth Program Officer in this current situation that we are facing, such as how to convince young people to save, unable to conduct to conduct face-to-face activities, less depositors because of the pandemic, and how to hit monthly target; I had to think of innovations to meet with the expected output that will give another opportunity, another door to do more than what is expected.

Learning how to deal with challenges takes time, persistence, and a positive attitude. No matter your life situation, the hard times will happen. But, with the right mindset and practice, you will be able to overcome them every time and grow in the process.

When I first started as Aflatoun Coordinator way back in 2011, I had a lot of memories when it came to youth, particularly Aflatoun members. The impact of this program on my life is very heartwarming because a lot of young children know how to save their money even in peso. The more you see them that they are enjoying saving it makes me feel happy because I am part of them. Now, I am a Youth Program Officer, I see them grow in the cooperative and develop their habit in saving to become regular members of Tagum Cooperative.

Thus, my advice to the youth is to start and continue to learn how to manage your money.  As a student, you probably don’t have tons of money right now, that’s a good thing, because you can learn to spend less, save more, invest and give with little risk.

There's no question that being a Guardian mentor or facilitator for a Laboratory Cooperative (Aflatoun) can be full of hard work to motivate the young ones. However, it can also be a richly rewarding experience. To ensure that Watchlife-Guardian Cooperative youth members get the best we have to offer, we envision our young members to have a positive attitude and execute a great potential of becoming a leader. This is one of the reasons Aflatoun was born and raised as a youth program in Watchlife Workers Multi-Purpose Cooperative. From this, there are several achievements and participations that were implemented even during the pandemic that we would like to share.

Global Money Week Celebrations

Watchlife MPC celebrated Global Money Week last March 2021, with the theme: “Take care of yourself, take care of your money,” along with many other lab-coops. The purpose of this is to raise awareness of the potential of young members to give importance to the cooperative, particularly the Lab Coop and change the perception when it comes to money matters.

In addition, the idea in joining Global Money Week Celebrations is to draw attention to a particular issue for Lab-Coop members such as the handling of finances, and marginalization from decision-making process. Each member of the Lab-Coop will be able to enhance their capability and camaraderie, the biggest factor to develop each personality. It is also a matter of exploration and discovery by bringing the best in them by participating and joining with the following programs activities such as Financial LIteracy Training, Kahoot Quiz, Photo Caption, Song Writing, Spoken Poetry, and Young Filipino Savers.

More Programs and Event participated by Lab Co-op Members

On September 26, 2021, a collective report on the International Clean-Up/ Coastal Clean-Up paved the way in engaging the community to participate in keeping our coastal area healthy. It was also an initiative in response to the urgent call of proper waste management. But because tenagers and the youth are not allowed, Watchlife Lab Co-op did their part to make the program useful and executed the “Operation Clean and Green'' program within their vicinity or area of residence.

For the past two years, we are all aware that facing the new normal is a bit complicated, especially for those who are not fully knowledgeable in using different online as a form of communication.

However, Watchlife MPC prioritizes using all means to be able to reach out to our members, especially with our members in the Aflatoun Lab Co-op Program. During our Kamustahan held last October 2021, they were able to know and be aware of the latest updates of their Guardian Co-op and even activities that are happening within the circle of Aflatoun Lab Co-op Members.

On the same day, we’ve been reminded of the incredible strength and resilience of our teachers. We could even say the year 2020-2021 may have been the most challenging school year of every teachers’ career, but it will also be the most memorable, not only because they are frontliner but an educator to everyone, thinking how they could give learning despite the pandemic situation.

Watchlife MPC treats teachers not only as educators but also as coordinators of different schools wherein lab-coop members are on their wings. So, it was a great privilege to celebrate and be part of the Teachers’ Day celebration by giving and distributing supplies and kits such as alcohol, facemask and other related health kit materials.

In an activity to bring tribute to all frontliners, Watchlife MPC Lab-Coop members learn and understand the selfless efforts and sacrifices of all frontliners during an outbreak of the so called Covid-19 pandemic. They showed and expressed how they truly appreciated Frontliners in this crucial time through letters and placards to capture the attention of other Lab Co-op members and spread the word about the good thing of being a Lab Co-op member. To be able to stand despite difficulties, it allowed them to speak what was on their mind. A majority of the labcoop members joined and participated in this event.

Lastly, Watchlife MPC won’t allow their Lab Co-op scholars to succumb to this COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, scholarship to support each student continues. Watchlife operations continue to assist each member, and give the very best services that we could offer and give. Whatever hardship, challenges, indecisions and fears that coop is facing, we just remember that these too shall pass and by the grace of God we will overcome.