The national office conducted two trainings to orient the member-cooperatices on the procedures and requirements of the contract. Conducted in December 2006, the first training was for the managers and production supervisors. This was focused on the design, production process, quality standards and assembly-delivery arrangements. The second was aimed to provide the members with a financial system to monitor their transactins and have a timely record which could easily be reconciled with the national office's books of account. the training was for the bookkeepers and treasurers and was conducted in January 2007. Each participating cooperative was provided with a computer which was installed with accounting softwasre specifically designed for cooperatives. In June 2007, a mid-term evaluation was conducted to share experiences and make an adjustment on the original plan.
To this writing, 70% of the contract is documented and delivered six billings for payment are submitted to DepEd and Php38 Million is collected. While we were not able to complete the contract within the original time-frame, we achieved a lot. In addition to our experienced members, new groups joined the work-force after we had successfully trained them. They are the Nueva Ecjia PWD Cooperative based in Cabanatuan City, Tabanang Walang Hagdanan in Cainta, the Lipa City PWD association, the Palawan Federation of PWDs based in Narra, the Tacloban City PWD group, a satellite production of the San Francisco Association of Differently-Abled Persons (SAFRA-ADAP) in Butuan City and Davao City and the General Santos City PWD cooperative.
It was and is, indeed, a great challenge for the national office to supervise and assist the groups to ensure an efficient organizational, production and managenment system. The other challenge was to properly allocate the funds for the procurement of materials and additional pieces of equipment including site improvement in some cooperatives.
Despite careful budgeting and planning, the Php60 M loan from CBM was not enough to complete the contract. Thanks to the Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF) and another "silent" supporter who provided the much-needed additional loans. Through them, we did not have to close shop while waiting for the collection from DepEd to continue the project.
Time flies very fast and year 2007 is again coming to end. Certainly, the 2005 contract is another milestone in the history of NFCPWD and its member-cooperatives. to this writting, the federation is negotiating the 2006 budget with DepEd Hopefully, this contract will be awarded to us before the end of this year.When this is realized, this will mean more jobs and opportunities for PWDs. This way, they can take their own development in their hands not only at the financial aspect but also towards their holistic development as human beings.