Inspiring stories of cooperatives
I was invited to Escalante City in Negros Occidental last weekend by veteran Cebu journalist and "Co-op TV" (CCTN Channel 47) host Malou Guanzon-Apalisok, to speak before an audience of students and members of EPSTEMPCO-Visayas about integrating social media in formal and informal education.
Ma'am Malou has been an advocate of cooperativism for many years now and it was last year when I first met her through a referral from another ace Cebu journalist, Eileen Mangubat, also a colleague of mine at UP Cebu. We discussed her plan to continue providing skills trainings and workshops to cooperatives.
That meeting brought us this year to Escalante City where I was the resource speaker on day one of the three-day training-workshop entitled "Leveraging Social Media in Education, Business and Cooperatives."
On a side note, it was awesome to share notes at the breakfast table before the training with Ma'am Malou whose impeccable voice presence was the staple of our household morning public affairs radio during my teenage years.
Even with my modest background working with NGOs, I never imagined to become part of activities involving cooperatives. But last Sunday's training-workshop with officers and members of EPSTEMPCO was an eye-opening experience. EPSTEMPCO stands for Escalante Public and Private School Teachers and Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative.
Although cooperatives do not enjoy the same glamour possessed by anything associated with big business, chambers of commerce and similar associations, this does not hide the fact that a lot of success stories and community transformations have been realized because of cooperatives.
In EPSTEMPCO's case, the cooperative began around 26 years ago as a response to the plight of cash-strapped public school teachers who were tied to high-interest loans from loan sharks. By providing low-interest loans to members, EPSTEMPCO gradually saved its members from loan sharks. The loan ceiling steadily increased and more services were added through the years with the aid of government banks and the Cooperative Development Authority, in partnership with the Visayas Cooperative Development Center.
The cooperative has since expanded its services from lending and savings to health assistance, death assistance, community outreach, insurance, scholarship program, livelihood skills training, and offering consumer products at lower prices.
A cooperative is generally defined as "a community-owned private enterprise that combines consumers with owners, and buyers with sellers in a democratic governance structure." The Cooperative Development Authority offers a lengthier description which include the words "autonomous," "common bond of interest," "equitable contributions," and "fair share of risks and benefits".
Whereas big business corporations and successful entrepreneurs tell their success stories in the flashy pages of magazines and newspapers, in the worldwide web and TV documentaries, success stories of cooperatives are typically under the radar of popular media.
There lies the underlying principle behind the advocacy of Ma'am Malou who strongly believes in the social benefit of enhancing the power of storytelling of cooperatives. Thankfully, her advocacy has enjoyed the support of media colleagues, the cooperative sector, and the Cooperative Development Authority, particularly its hardworking and passionate administrator Mercedes D. Castillo who is retiring from the CDA, but definitely not from cooperative service work, this July.
Today our nation celebrates "Independence Day". It is no coincidence that I chose this day to write about cooperatives. Behind every successful and independent nation in the world lies the spirit of solidarity, industry, self-reliance, and accountability that penetrates at the grassroots level. We who seek such inspiration need not look any further than the stories of many of our cooperatives.
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