Author: Mariel Vincent Rapisura

Melinda Gabuya holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Legal Management and a minor degree in Cultural Heritage Studies from the Ateneo de Manila University. Prior to SEDPI, she worked for Smarter Good—a US Ashoka Fellow-led global enterprise that provides program and administrative services for social enterprises and non-profit organizations abroad.

Her passion for the culture and social sector was cultivated by her involvement to various student organizations such as Ateneo Baliklaya for prison advocacy and the Ateneo Student Business Review for cultural entrepreneurship. Today, she continues to be a staunch advocate for cultural heritage awareness by co-founding Heritage Conservation Society Youth, a movement advocating for the celebration of Philippine art and heritage.

In November 2012, Melinda served as a Philippine delegate to the UNESCO Human Rights Forum Asia Region held in Thailand where she had the chance to learn and exchange ideas on social development from fellow youth social activists and changemakers

Melinda brings to SEDPI her experience gained in project management, communications, research, and writing. She dreams of building her own social enterprise one day that weaves together two of her life’s greatest passions: social development and cultural heritage.

Maria Kharmita Lising graduated from Ateneo de Manila University with a Bachelor of Arts major in Management Economics and minor in Financial Management. During college, she was involved in different socially-oriented organizations. She was Vice President for Projects of the Ateneo Special Education Society (SPEED), an organization that caters to children with special needs.

Shortly after graduation, she joined Jesuit Volunteers Philippines (JVP). She served as Youth Education and Enterprise Program Coordinator for the Local Government Unit of Kiamba, Sarangani Province, where she conducted demographics research on Kiamba youth and helped supervise education programs. She also served as home study program teacher and youth organizer in Gawad Kalinga Nuestra Senora dela Soledad, San Isidro, Nueva Ecija, where she taught elementary students and facilitated leadership seminars and team-building activities for members of youth organizations.

After her JVP year, Charmie worked as part-time NSTP facilitator for the Office for Social Concern and Involvement (OSCI) of the Ateneo de Manila University. She then worked as Project Development Specialist for DMCI Homes, a real estate developer. Charmie was also a finalist in the British Council’s ‘I Am A Changemaker’ competition.

Driven by her passion for development work, Charmie left her corporate work and joined SEDPI. As a program officer, she has handles clients’ needs under the Technical and Mentoring Assistance and has also been part

Denise Subido graduated cum laude from Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU) with a degree in International Studies, major in Asian Studies.  She has worked as a research assistant to several sociology professors in ADDU and has interned with United Nations Development Program – Action for Conflict Transformation (UNDP-ACT) and the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA).

After graduation, she became a volunteer for Jesuit Volunteers Philippines (JVP) and was assigned to Iloilo City, where she drafted and conducted various trainings to college youth in Central Visayas.  After her JVP year, she worked as Associate Program Staff for Philam Foundation, Inc., where she was acquainted with microfinance and social entrepreneurship.  Denise screened, appraised and validated various livelihood projects nationwide that the foundation funded, such as agriculture and aquaculture projects and microfinance institutions.  Apart from project appraisals, she also conducted trainings and attended several seminars on Social Entrepreneurship, strengthening her training skills, which prove to be valuable in SEDPI.

Now a senior program officer for SEDPI, Denise conducted various trainings nationwide, including Fundamentals and Principles of Microfinance, Delinquency Management, Market-Based Financial Product Design and Development, and Risk Management.  Apart from that, she has also been part of the research team on housing microfinance and domestic payments in the Philippines with the Philippine Business for Social Progress and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Along with her teammates, Denise also handles clients for Technical and Mentoring Assistance (TAMA).

Denise is currently taking up her Masters in Applied Business Economics at the University of Asia and the Pacific.

Enid Kathleen Madarcos earned her degree on Sociology (cum laude) from the University of the Philippines at Los Baños. In her college years, she has been a student assistant and an intern for the International Rice Research Institute.

After graduation, she worked as a researcher and writer for a company that profiled the municipalities in Palawan for video production. She then worked as an instructor at the Western Philippines and taught sociology. Apart from her teaching duties, she also stood as adviser of the Sociology Student’s Organization. Moreover, she conceptualized various researches for the University and conducted seminars on research writing. She has also conducted community-based researches using Key Informants, Focus Group Discussions, and Surveys.

With SEDPI, Enid has been part of the training team for various trainings nationwide such as Product Design and Development, Financial Analysis, Character and Capacity Based Lending, Delinquency Management, Financial Literacy for Remittance Receivers and Fundamentals and Methodologies of Microfinance.

Enid Kathleen Madarcos graduated Cum Laude with a degree in Sociology from the University of the Philippines-Los Baños.  Prior to graduation, she worked as an intern at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).  Shortly after, she taught at the Western Philippines University under its Social Sciences Department.

Her work as a research assistant at IRRI and as an associate at the research department of the academe exposed her to community-based research and resource management.  These experiences have equipped her with a strong research background, which proves to be very valuable in her current work at SEDPI.  As program officer, she conducted various researches in microfinance all over the country including those commissioned by the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), Mindanao Alliance for Self-help Societies-Southern Philippines Educational Cooperative Center (MASS-SPECC), Mercy Corps and Bankable Frontiers Associates.  In all these researches, Enid displayed her proficiency and rigor  on statistical analysis and data processing.

To add to her excellent research skills is Enid’s competence in teaching, which she exhibits in trainings she delivers for SEDPI. She conducts training for technical and mentoring assistance for partner microfinance institutions and at the Ateneo de Manila University’s Microfinance Capacity Building Program.

Florence Adviento finished her degree in Management Economics at the Ateneo de Manila University.  After graduation, she worked for the Corporate Banking Group of Metrobank, one of the country’s top commercial banks.  Shortly after her stay in the bank, she returned to SEDPI, having rendered volunteer work to it in its inception.

As part of SEDPI’s management staff, she leads organizational appraisals of several microfinance institutions in the country, where she displayed her expertise in performing impact assessments with their end-clients and focus group discussions with MFIs from all organizational levels.  She also conducted various trainings all over the country, including Training of Trainers (ToT) on Financial Literacy for Remittance Receivers and Risk Management and Microinsurance.    In addition, under the partnership of SEDPI and Microfinance Opportunities (MFO), Florence has pilot tested a comic book on microinsurance, which was published and distributed to end-clients of microfinance institutions.

Florence represented SEDPI in a conference organized by the Academy for Microfinance Development in Asia (AMIDA) in Bali, Indonesia, where she took a course on microinsurance.  Moreover, she recently assisted in the conduct of Training of Trainers in the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Edwin Salonga is the Chairperson of SEDPI Group of Social Enterprises, which includes development consultancy, socially responsible resource mobilization, social enterprise incubation, and foundation. His main competence is in social development, specifically in the fields of social entrepreneurship, financial education and microfinance. A lecturer at the Development Studies Program of the Ateneo de Manila University, Edwin also serves as its microfinance research specialist and lead trainer on its Microfinance Capacity-Building Program.

Graduating Cum Laude in Mass Communication and with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration, Edwin is currently pursuing his doctoral degree in Social Development at the University of the Philippines. He presents academic papers and serves as resource speaker in conferences, both local and abroad. He was a presenter at the 2010 Global Conference in Microfinance at the University of Greenwich in the United Kingdom and in 2012 Asia Summit on Social Entrepreneurship in Thailand. Edwin is also an Adjunct Professor of the Ateneo School of Government, responsible for delivering training courses in financial education to overseas Filipinos in Europe and Asia.

Edwin leads the delivery of the Ateneo de Manila’s Diploma Course in Microfinance in key cities of the Philippines, in partnership with the BPI-Globe BanKO and the People’s Credit and Finance Corporation. He also led its delivery to the management staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 2007 to 2010. Through the British Council he delivers training courses in social entrepreneurship in the Southeast Asian region. Since 2006, Edwin has been traveling to Europe and Asia to conduct training courses in financial education to migrant workers and hometown associations.

To keep him abreast on recent issues and trends in social development, Edwin regularly attends conferences and seminars in Indonesia, Europe, and the United States of America.

Emilenn Kate Sacdalan-Pateño graduated with a double degree in Development Studies and Economics from the Ateneo de Manila University.  She completed her Master’s Degree in International Community Economic Development at the Southern New Hampshire University, United States of America.  At present, she is a lecturer at the Development Studies Program of the Ateneo de Manila University.

As one of the pioneer members of SEDPI, she provides indefatigable and reliable delivery of customized and public-run training courses and technical and mentoring services to microfinance institutions in key cities and provinces all over the Philippines.  She has worked on the documentation of best practices of microfinance institutions in the Philippines under the commission of the National Confederation of Cooperatives and the Peace and Equity Foundation.  Moreover, she has led organizational appraisals of different microfinance institutions in the country.

Furthermore, Emilenn also provides technical and mentoring services to microfinance and microenterprise stakeholders the world over.  She has conducted several trainings for the Central Bank of Nigeria as well as other Microfinance Training Service Providers in Nigeria.  In addition, she has also provided Financial Literacy for Filipino migrants in Dubai and Hong Kong.

She leads SEDPI’s front liners in field research and training.  Her excellent communication skills with the grassroots allow her to easily integrate into communities from which crucial data are gathered for research.  She seamlessly conducts focus group discussions and completes surveys very efficiently.  From her front line work, Emilenn is able to transform data into valuable information through rigorous statistical analysis and then later translate these in operational terms that could be understood by microfinance practitioners.

 

Starting a career in microfinance and social entrepreneurship soon after he graduated, Vince has gained considerable experience having worked on these fields in 22 countries aside from the Philippines. He spearheaded the development and delivery of the Ateneo de Manila University’s Microfinance Diploma Course. The diploma course has attracted participants from Asia, Africa and Latin America. He was recently a presenter at the Global Microcredit Summit in Valladolid, Spain; the Asia Social Entrepreneurship Summit in Bangkok, Thailand; and the Global Village Conference in Jerusalem, Israel.

Vince established SEDPI and SCCI in 2004 and 2008, respectively. SEDPI has grown into a premier capacity builder for microfinance and social enterprises in the Philippines. SCCI caters to small and emerging microfinance institutions and social enterprises. It currently invests close to PhP160 million portfolio to 15 microfinance institutions and seven social enterprises. SCCI is audited by Ernst and Young and has no portfolio at risk.

He has conducted financial literacy trainings to more than 2,000 migrants in 16 countries worldwide. Vince uses financial literacy as a tool to upgrade the financial knowledge and skills of migrants. This resulted to the mobilization of investments used for development in the Philippines.

Vince has a reputation for turning around ailing microfinance institutions and create market niches for those that are struggling with competition. He specializes in designing capacity building interventions and strategies on how struggling MFIs can achieve microfinance financial performance standards. Vince is a good mentor to start up social enterprises. He provides capacity building interventions for social enterprises to attain financial sustainability and at the same time fulfill their social mission. Vince also assisted several organizations access funds both from donors and commercial sources in the local and international markets.

Vince also frequently speaks in international conferences to share his experience as a successful capacity builder and social entrepreneur.  He was recently a presenter at the Asia Social Entrepreneurship Summit in Bangkok, Thailand; the Global Microcredit Summit in Valladolid, Spain; and the Global Village Conference in Jerusalem, Israel.

In 2012, Vince also established SEDPI Social Enterprise Ventures, Inc. (SSEVI) that is mandated to support start up and emerging social enterprises. SSEVI currently supports 12 social enterprises in the Philippines that are involved in sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, design and media, health and sustainable tourism. The strong experience of SEDPI in developing capacity building interventions for social entrepreneurship prompted the establishment of its partnership with the British Council to run an annual competition on social entrepreneurship. SEDPI was also asked to transfer its training technology to its partner in Vietnam – Centre for Social Innovation Promotion. Vince has also written several case studies on social entrepreneurship under the Ateneo de Manila University and the National University of Singapore.

Vince is a product of the Ateneo de Manila University and the Asian Institute of Management. He has also been trained in the Netherlands and the United States of America on microenterprise development and rural finance. Vince is a faculty member of the Development Studies Program of the Ateneo de Manila University and teaches social entrepreneurship and microfinance. He was a finalist to the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2012.

Welcome to the Official Website of Social Enterprise Development Partnerships, Inc. (SEDPI). Unfortunately, we are experiencing a technical problem, but will be re-launching the site soon.

In the meantime, if you have concerns or queries that need our immediate attention, drop us a line at info@sedpi.com or call us at (+63)2 433-8795.

Thank you! 🙂

 

– Administrator