Legaspi City
Background:
BPWDMPC began as an association of PWDs in the early ‘90s coming from the different municipalities of Albay. Most of the members were orthopedically impaired, some were sick with polio when they were children, some amputees and some others blind. Most of the member had no regular income. The group underwent much training with TESDA and some NGOs. Thinking that, by these training, the group could develop a sustainable livelihood project. Since most of them lived far from the area, they stayed in the TESDA building during the training. At the same time there were other trainees so they had only two-hours training everyday. After a month, they had already consumed the provisions. By the end of the four-month training, they had accumulated a total of Php7,000 loan from TESDA for their food. But again, had no practical application for the training.
The group met Johnny for the first time in 1998 during a seminar of PWDs at the Nayong Pilipino in Manila. He inspired them to form a cooperative in Bicol the group had very little idea of cooperative building then but open to the idea and are determined to look for a regular source of income.
However, it was only in 2001 that the group became more decisive in the preparation for the establishment of the cooperative. Among the first steps was for all prospective members to go through the Pre-Membership Education Seminar (PMES). With Johnny as the facilitator, they came to understand cooperatives. Then BPWD borrowed money with no interest from the federation to buy pieces of equipment. Johnny also taught the production flow on chair-making. The Albay Association of PWDs facilitated other trainings for the group.
BPWDMPC was registered with the CDA on May 2, 2002. With initial 24 members, half of whom are married. The group is also good at making linkages. Earlier, the Simon of Cyrene, an NGO also funded by CBM, came to an aid in many ways. The provincial government, DSWD and NAPC helped us acquire an abandoned two-storey building in Legaspi for our workshop. The Bureau of Soils lent the building to us and we did not pay rental from the beginning up to the present but only pay for electricity.
BPWDMPC hold a General Assembly (GA) every year. The main agenda of the GA is reporting, planning and election of the Board of Directors (BOD) which has five members. The BOD serves as the highest leadership between the GAs. The BOD meets once a month if there are urgent organizational matters otherwise, the required regularity of BOD meetings is quarterly. For the day-to-day operations of the cooperative, was handled by the management staff composed of a secretary, a bookkeeper and a manager.
BPWD received the first DepEd contract in 2002, for the first time, BPWD cooperative earned thousands of pesos through collective labor. Indeed, this experience delighted us. In our excitement, we started telling one another - never again shall we live on dole outs as long as we are still strong.