A total of 131 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) attended the introductory sessions of financial literacy and social entrepreneurship in Paris, Turin and Dubai. Six training sessions were conducted on weekends from May 24 to June 2, 2013. The participants are registered in the Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship (LSE) Program of the Ateneo School of Government (ASOG). The Social Enterprise Development Partnerships, Inc. (SEDPI) and Overseas Filipinos’ Society for the Promotion of Economic Security (OFSPES) are partners of ASOG in implementing the LSE Program. SEDPI founders Mariel Vincent Rapisura and Edwin Salonga delivered the sessions. Both were evaluated as excellent in the delivery of their sessions.
Joy Sipin, 36, and an OFW for over a decade in Turin, Italy expressed her enthusiasm about the course, “It was a very enriching session. I am being empowered on how I am going to manage my monthly salary. The speakers are also exceptional and have much knowledge to share with the participants.”
The financial literacy session had the following topics: personal financial management; savings planning, budgeting and managing expenditures, debt management and financial goals planning. The social entrepreneurship session covered the following topics: concept of social entrepreneurship; motivation and characteristics of social entrepreneurs; understanding and identifying social issues; opportunity recognition and creative thinking; and external analysis.
LSE envisions a united, empowered and respected Filipino migrants and their families contributing towards Philippine development. ASOG, SEDPI and OFSPES are dedicated to forming economically empowered and socially responsible Filipino leaders. They partner with Filipino organizations overseas and government agencies that cater to Overseas Filipinos to make the LSE program possible.
There are three core modules in the LSE Program: leadership, social entrepreneurship and financial literacy. Four sessions are allocated to each module. Ten classroom sessions are held every two weeks on a weekend to fit the schedule of the migrants. The remaining two sessions are online sessions on financial literacy. The speakers are experts in their respective fields and are mostly practitioners who volunteer their time to deliver sessions.
Since 2008, 517 Overseas Filipinos have completed the LSE course. There are five LSE programs concurrently implemented in Hong Kong, Dubai, Turin and Paris. Students from the Ateneo de Manila University found out in their research that the financial literacy module of LSE has a social return on investment of 20 times per peso investment made in the program. This means that the combined economic and social change of the program is truly effective.