SURIGAO DEL NORTE – With the support of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) through Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi – CIDSS) Livelihood and Enterprise (L and E) staff, a Financial Management System (FMS) training was conducted on May 24 and 25, 2018 at Brgy. Datu in the municipality of Pilar.

This is to inculcate to the Operations and Maintenance (O and M) team the importance of properly handling their resources and that no matter how big or small the amount of money they earned or used, it should be recorded. The two-day intensive training was set-off by Financial Analyst II Maharu Kobayashi and assisted by Regional Training Officer Emarie Bermoy.

Before the Datu Farmers’ and Fisher Folks Association (DFFFA) started the project, they were already trained on the technical know-how of raising mud crab fattening. Majority of the people living in Brgy. Datu are farmers and fishers, thus it is just conventional for them to choose a livelihood that suits their way of living.

During the training, the volunteers were given handouts for them to easily familiarize the different kinds of financial books such as general journal, cash journal, and stocks journal. The volunteers were also taught on who are the responsible persons that should handle specific financial books. By doing this, we will be assured that O and M members will carefully and perpetually treat the livelihood grant seriously.

Operations and Maintenance (O and M) is one of the most critical part during an implementation of a program. This is the stage where the partner-implementers will be fully reliable for the production of their chosen project. They need to be trained on how to properly manage their resources to ensure that they benefit from it.

Kalahi-CIDSS stands true to its goal in making Filipinos self-sufficient through different modalities bannering programs that alleviates poverty. Through the L and E modality, the disadvantaged and vulnerable sectors of our society will have a better chance of improving their way of living and support our government in its development endeavors. ###(RUSS CLEPPIN M. PASTER/MARKO DAVEY D. REYES – Social Marketing Unit/DSWD Field Office Caraga)