GE concepts shared in NSCC

AWCF Executive Director Ms Salome Ganibe spoke on gender equality (GE) at the “NSCC Gender Congress” of the Nueva Segovia Consortium of Cooperatives (NSCC) on March 26, 2011 at the NSCC Cooperative and Microfinance Training Center in Caoayan town, Ilocos Sur province, Philippines. NSCC Chief Executive Officer Ms Divina Quemi’s initiatives helped make possible the holding of the Congress. NSCC is a secondary level co-operative in the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia (which covers some provinces in the Philippines’s Northern Luzon region). In line with AWCF’s goal of promoting GE among co-ops, Ms Ganibe’s talk on GE concepts also focused on the benefits that co-ops can derive from being gender-fair organizations.

The Gender Congress had 42 co-op participants (90 percent women) representing the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia. The participants also used the occasion to elect NSCC’s first gender representative who will then become a member of the NSCC Board of Directors. Abra Diocesan Teachers and Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative (ADTEMPCO) General Manager Ms Irene Bringas garnered the position.

The following day, the Congress participants took part in the inauguration and blessing of the NSCC Plaza owned and managed by NSCC. The NSCC Plaza is a hostel and commercial center envisioned as the center of co-op training and education in Northern Luzon. The building’s facilities—such as a function hall, board room, and more—can be used by co-op members, network partners, foreign and local visitors, and people of the locality.