SAC-DISOP Three-year Accomplishment Report

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The project entitled "Capability building and development of agricultural and coastal association in Calubian, province of Leyte, Philippines" started last January 2005 although initial preparation and organization started in the year 2004.The five cooperatives were organized with direct assistance and supervision from SAC/CLAD staff and was co-finance by DISOP. For the last three years five cooperatives had slowly sustain and increase in various aspects of the operation. Subsequently, jobs had been generated due to the implementation of members' livelihood projects. Moreover additional income had been added to enterprising members and the cooperative as well. The second year of operation was a fruitful year for the five cooperatives since more loan windows had been opened to cater the financial needs of the members. Subsequently they have generated a total Capital Build-Up (CBU) of P456,508.59 compared to P162,311.25 and P365,774.40 for the first and third year, respectively for a total of 984,594.24, the CBU generated for three years operation. Membership for the five cooperatives almost doubled from 228 in 2005 to 425 in 2007. Sustain membership campaign had been the flagship of cooperative operation in order to serve the wide range of poor populace in the locality. Although the cooperatives are still in their infancy stage, they are evolving the fact that they had their own masterplan of operation is a major achievement by themselves. It can be noted that cooperatives' net surplus steadily increase yearly from a low of P103,460.89 in the first year it increased to P413,526.09 on the second and reached P572,023.11 on the third year while the total asset had reach to P2,627,154.01 on its third year of operation. At the same time the cooperatives had become active partners in the implementation of community development projects, especially in the regeneration of its natural resources. Corresponding technical trainings, continuous cooperative and project visitation had been the usual practice to inject fresh ideas and immediate assessment of the working environment of the five cooperatives.

BELGIAN AMBASSADOR VISITED CALUBIAN

September 25, 2007 was one of the lucky days for the cooperative movement in the Municipality of Calubian, Province of Leyte, Philippines. This was the day when a team composed of NGOs which are the nationwide partners of DISOP visited the municipality. The team's visit was focused on the enterprises conducted by the members of the different cooperatives oraganized by CLAD and with the assistance of DISOP Philippines, a Belgian NGO which is based in Tacloban City, Philippines.

With Belgian Ambassador to the Philippines Hon. Gregoire Vardakis heading the team and was accompanied by Mr. Werner Caekelbergh, DISOP Asia-desk incharge and Mrs Kathleen Deckmyn-Cordero, DISOP Philippines and South East Asia coordinator, the team was welcomed by Hon Hazel "Dayday" Po, Calubian municipal mayor and Fr. Arnold Cordeta, the CLAD Executive Director(see photo above).

The Nipa-Calubian Credit Cooperative (NiCalCCo) located at Brgy Nipa, Calubian, Leyte was the first cooperative visited by the team. Majority of the recipients of the program were engaged in backyard hog raising project. Other projects include fishing, farming, buy & sell among others. The Brgy Nipa was alo the active partner of CLAD and SAC in their organic farming promotion and was the adoptor of rice organic farming program. The members of the NiCALCCo were very inspired by the visit and have shown their hospitability by serving delicious and native delicacies to the visitors.

The next stop was at Sr. San Roque Credit Cooperative at Brgy Ul-og. Before visiting the different enterprises of the members, a ceremonial tree planting was conducted infront of the Coop Office with Hon. Vardakis led the activities. The first enterprise visited was the processing of Barinday shells at Mrs. Leonisa Torrejos' residence. The process is separating meat and the shells through blanching in controlled temperature. Frozen shell meat which is their end product are sold to the exporter at a higher price giving the processor a higher profit margin. Other projects undertaken by the members of this cooperative include boat making, fishing and farming, buy & sell, backyard and others.

The last cooperative visited which is located in the southern part of the municiaplity was the Katilingbanon Multi-purpose Cooperative situated in Brgy. F.E. Marcos. Among the five cooperatives organized and assisted, the Katilingbanon have shown its potential to grow in a faster pace. With members much more knowledgeable in cooperative principles and majority are college level, the coop leaders and members of the management staff had easily adopted the principles and practices taught to them. In fact, this cooperated had posted the highest in terms of recruitment of new members and the highest in terms of interest earnings. The following enterprises undertaken by its members included backyard hog raising, sarisari store, farming and fishing and others.

Before proceeding to the northern cooperatives, the team had their lunch at the Lotus Beach situated at Brgy Abanilla/Uson. Several presentations were given by the selected members of the different cooperatives. Speeches were also delivered from the different executives; in behalf of the Diocese of Naval, His Eminence Felomino Bactol delivered the message thanking the Belgian Government/NGO in supporting project in his Diocese; in behalf of the municipality, Hon Hazel R. Po expressed her support to the program while Hon Vardakis expressed his gratitude of a very warm welcome to his visit in the municipality.

The last two cooperatives visited were located at Brgy Villanueva, the Villanueva Credit cooperative situated at Brgy Villanueva proper and the Kabicolan Credit Cooperative at Sitio Kabicolan of the same barangay. Majority of their members were engaged in backyard hog fattening projects.

A GLIMPSE ON DISOP PROJECT IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF CALUBIAN

BRIEF SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROFILE OF CALUBIAN

Historical Background

On January 8, 1919 Governor Charles E. Yeatter issued Executive Order No. 4 creating the town of Calubian which was formerly a barrio of Leyte, Leyte. Originally, its name was Eulalia, in honor of a prominent lady resident. Latter it was changed to Calubian due to the vast coconut plantation of the place. Last 2000 census revealed that the municipality has a total population of 28,421 with 6,450 total number of household.

Calubian, Leyte is basically an agricultural town. Of the total land area of 13,760 has., 12,162.60 or 87.39 % is agricultural with major crops grown include coconut, rice, banana, rootcrops and vegetables.

Inclusion of Calubian as DISOP Project Partner

It was through the then SAC Executive Director Fr Arnold Cordeta in collaboration with the Regional and Municipal Agriculture personnel that DISOP project in Calubian was conceptualized and implemented. The project started last 2005 by developing the Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs) into cooperatives which serve as conduit for funds for microfinancing different projects. The following BECs include Nipa, Ul-og, F.E. Marcos, Villanueva and Sitio Kabicolan. The implementation of the project resulted in the organization and registration of the following cooperatives; Nipa-Calubian Credit Cooperative of Brgy Nipa, Sr. San Roque Credit Cooperative of Brgy Ul-og, Katilingbanon Multipurpose Cooperative of F.E. Marcos, Villanueva Credit Cooperative of Brgy Villanueva and Kabicolan Credit Cooperative of Sitio Kabicolan of Brgy Villanueva.

Cooperative Development

Initially, the total membership of the newly organized five cooperatives was 147 with Nipa having the lowest original members of 23 persons while Villanueva Credit Coop having the highest of 35 members. In June of 2007, membership of the five coops increased 177% totalling to 407 persons with Katilingbanon Multipurpose Coop with the highest number of membership of 123 persons while Nipa remained with the lowest members of 53 persons.

Starting from nil, the five cooperatives were able to generate savings to sustain their economic activities through the members' continuous capital build-up generation scheme. Different cooperatives adopted different strategies to augment capitalization . Some cooperatives had suspended payments of their patronage refund and dividends and flowing it back to their coops to form part of their capitalization. Others implemented loan retain or a certain percentage of their loan proceeds will be deducted to be added to their individual shares.

As of June 2007, the five cooperatives were able to generate a total of 852,253.45 pesos as part of their paid up capital with Nipa posted the lowest CBU generated totalling to 94,048.53 while Katilingbanon Credit Coop posted the highest CBU of 299,503.82. For the first semester of 2007, the five cooperatives had already posted a total gross income of 391,148.53 which means that the cooperatives were doing well in their microfinancing business.

CLAD, Inc., linking the countryside to the world

CLAD, Inc. , the newly organized Non-Government Organization (NGO) with main office address at Brgy Cabalquinto, Calubian, Leyte was conceptualized to help marginal farmers and fisherfolks augment their income through the introduction of technologies which are environment friendly and gender sensitive. With capital being the most limiting factor that affects the potential of these less fortunate rural populace to maximize production, it has challenged some individuals to forge their talents and meage resources inorder to source out funds to help these people. Hence, on July 17, 2007 CLAD, Inc or the Calubian Livelihood Assistance for Development, Incorporated was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Cebu Extension Office as Non-Stock non-profit organization with SEC Registration No. CN200727529.

THE MISSION

It is CLAD's mission to organize/strengthen marginal farmers, fisherfolks and entrepreneurs into viable organizations linking them to local, national and international funding agencies and NGO's for financial support to encourage socio-economic activities.

THE VISION

CLAD envisioned to develop this marginal sector of the Municipality of Calubian and soon to its neighboring municipalities into a sustainable and economically viable associations or cooperatives embracing the principles of equity, social justice and the adoption of environmentally sound technologies which encourage environmental regeneration and rehabilitation.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

1. To support community-based organizations advocating to them the principles of savings and providing them access to credit;

2. To assist in the organization/strengthening of peoples organization/cooperatives through capability building activities while promoting agricultral livelihood undertakings and enterpreneurship implemented through sound environmental management strategies;

3. To enhance job creation and employment by supporting micro enterprise development through micro-financing and livelihood support by linking them to financial institutions and local and international NGO's;

4. To conduct microfinance operations pursuant to RA 8425.