SEDPI’s President and CEO, Mariel Vincent Rapisura, trained 18 Overseas Filipino Workers in Bern, Switzerland on May 26, 2012. Samahang Pilipina in Switzerland organized the training on Financial Literacy for Remittance Senders. The training aims to identify the current financial status of the participants; define their financial goals and provide suggestions on how to attain their financial dreams.
At the end of the session, SEDPI Capital Credit, Inc.’s (SCCI) Sustainable Investment Fund (SIF) was introduced. The SIF aims to mobilize socially responsible investments from migrants that SCCI will use to fund microfinance institutions and social enterprises in the Philippines. It is an alternative investment platform made available to migrants. SIF gives a return of 7.5% to investors with a term of one year. To date, SCCI has mobilized approximately PhP12 million SIF that are invested in 11 microfinance institutions and 12 social enterprises reaching an estimated 500,000 poor households in the Philippines.
The participants in Bern, Switzerland were inspired of the SIF and took it upon themselves to be proactive and invest in SCCI. Ms. Maria Teresa Eviota, President of Samahang Pilipina, initiated to use “paluwagan” to enable them to invest. Paluwagan is a rotating savings and credit scheme widely used in the Philippines. Each participant in the paluwagan will contribute CHF120 every month. The total amount collected will then be used to invest in SCCI assigned to a particular person. There are 12 participants in the scheme. “This is our way to enable us to invest because it is easy and affordable for the members,” explains Ms. Eviota.