CCT Community Partners Get Free Legal Advice

Needy persons being ministered to by the Center for Community Transformation in Bagong Silangan, Quezon City recently received free legal advice during a legal mission jointly held by CCT, Ateneo Law 88, Gerodias Suchiangco Estrella Law Firm, Water Hope, Wholistic Transformation Resource Center, Pepsico, and Helping Hands.

Lectures on rights of women and children, marriage, wills and succession, and duties and responsibilities to the environment preceded the individual consultation sessions held by 30 lawyers who came to give free assistance.

The activity, which had the theme Make a Difference, was held on November 24, 2012.  Free eye and blood pressure check ups for adults and games and a gift-giving activity for children were held simultaneously.

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Rabia Mangumpig is CCT's 2nd MOTY Winner

Left to right:  Dennis Monong, CCT Savings and Credit Cooperative general manager; Rosano Mangumpig;
Rabia Mangumpig, Citi Microentrepreneur of the Year - Mindanao; and Jeaneth Samuel, covenant
community builder - Cotabato Branch.

 Rabia Manumpig, dress shop owner from Cotabato City, is the 2012 Citi Microentrepreneur of the Year (MOTY)  for Mindanao.   She received her prize of P100,000 during a formal ceremony at the Hyatt Hotel in Manila. The Citi MOTY Awards program is a nationwide search for outstanding Filipino micro entrepreneurs. This is its tenth annual run.

Rabia, who sews wedding gowns accented with inaul, the Magindanao handwoven fabric, has been a community partner of the Center for Community Transformation Savings and Credit Cooperative since 2008.  In addition to the cash prize, she also received life and health insurance coverage for a three-year period, and the privilege of attending an entrepreneurship course. 

A total of  108 microentrepreneurs were nominated this year by 28 microfinance institutions from around the country.  Out of  the 108 nominees, 18 semi-finalists were picked, and 11 finalists were named, before six winners were chosen.  One national MOTY awardee was recognized and   three regional winners were chosen -- one each from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.  A special enterprise award and a special award for innovation were also given this year.  

This is the second year in a row that a beneficiary of CCT's microfinance program has won a MOTY award.  In 2011, Andresa Javines of General Santos City was also named MOTY awardee for Mindanao. http://cctgeneralnews.blogspot.com/2011/10/nanay-andresa-mindanao-masikap.html

Rabia with other winners (front row) and the MOTY board of judges. 

...with CCT program managers and staff...

...with (left to right) her brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and husband Rosano...

...with writer
 Myra Gaculais
del Rosario.

Celebrate Christmas by Helping the Poor

14 Couples Say 'I Do' in CCT Negros Mass Wedding

Fourteen couples exchanged wedding vows in a collective wedding ceremony organized by the staff of the Center for Community Transformation Group of Ministries in Negros. Eleven of the couples had been living together as husband and wife for more than five years  before the ceremony. 

The oldest person among those wed was a 52-year old man who married his 30-year old bride. The youngest was a 20 year old bride who married her 23-year old groom.   Seven of the brides are current micro finance partners, while the rest are children or relatives of community partners. All the couples attended three Christian marriage counselling meetings in the weeks prior to the ceremony.

The Negros staff have held a mass wedding once a year since 2003.The wedding was officiated this year by Rev. Rene Bajalan of Murcia Evangelical Church and held at the Check Inn Pension Arcade, Bacolod City.  Visions of Hope Christian School students served as flower girls and ring bearers.