2 Cebu City barangays adopt ‘savings’ program

CEBU, Philippines — At least two barangays in Cebu City are the first to implement the “Amuma sa Barangay” program.

These are barangays Sambag 2 and Ermita, the Department of Interior and Local Government-Cebu City reported.

The program aims to capacitate the barangay in effectively adopting and implementing programs and projects for target vulnerable sectors to ensure economic and livelihood security.

Aside from that, the importance of savings and financial management through the organization of community savings groups is being stressed.

Lie Laurente of World Vision, a non-government organization, facilitated the organization of the barangays' savings groups in Sambag 2 and Ermita and provided guidance on the conduct of the weekly meetings of the savings group.

Barangay Captain Ryan Aznar of Sambag 2 and Mark Miral of Ermita were also present during the activity along with DILG staff to provide technical assistance to the two barangays.

Group leaders were identified along with other Community Savings and Credit Administration (COMSCA) officers.

The group is setting the minimum and maximum weekly contributions which will be collected during the group's scheduled weekly meetings.

For Sambag 2, they are starting out with 25 members and will be forming another group soon after others are getting interested in it, said Aznar to The Freeman.

The savings are kept in a safety deposit box with three different locks and keys kept by different members and are turned over to the barangay for safekeeping. It will only be after a year that they can borrow from their savings for any emergency needs.

Commitments and agreements from the partner national government agencies and NGOs for the “Amuma sa Barangay” were sealed through the signing of the memorandum of agreement in early December of 2022.

“Amuma sa Barangay” is the brainchild of DILG-7 Director Leocadio Trovela.

“Amuma” is a Cebuano word that means “to nourish, to take care of” and is basically the origin of the concept from which the “Amuma sa Barangay” program was inspired. —/GMR (FREEMAN)