* The JPIC-IDC Board of Directors held its quarterly meeting last December 12, 2007. The salient agenda consisted in the Yearly Report presented by the Consultancy and Implementing arms executive directors of the organization and the forecasted operational budget for 2008 presented by the JPIC-IDC finance officer.
* Mrs Reich, from the Optimus Foundation in Switzerland, paid a visit to the Early Childhood Education Project in Agusan del Sur last October 2007. Representing UBS, the main sponsor partner of the project together with KKS, she had the oportunity of interacting with the direct beneficiaries (parents, children and day care workers) as well as with the local officials also committed in the implementation of the project. Accompanied by Mr Thomas Westermann of KKS and the JPIC-IDC project staff she took part of some related activities and meetings to have a better impression of the actual implementation of the project.
* The Early Childhood Education project in Agusan del Sur was officially launched last August 14, 2007. The MOA signing between JPIC-IDC and the Provincial and Municipal heads of offices was the focal point of the ceremony. The project consists on the building of 30 day care centers in three municipalities of Agusan del Sur, mainly, Veruela, La Paz and Loreto. The provincial and municipal LGUs have committed themselves with their counterpart. The targeted municipalities are considered among the poorest of the province and the region, which turned out to be one of the main causes of the high drop out of children from school.
* The Integrated Rural Development project in Bantayan, extension phase, has been officially launched last September 2007. Fr, Anthony Salas, SVD, JPIC-IDC executive director presided the ceremony and blessing of the facilities.
* A workshop on Non-Violent Communication was organized by KKS. The said activity took place in Ruhpolding, Southern Germany, last November 12 to 20. The Philippines delegation counted 28 participants representing different sectors of the society, among those the JPIC-IDC management team members. Non Violent Communication aims at facilitating tools and skills for a different way of establishing interpersonal relationships that would not only help avoid conflicts but also meet each other's needs.
* JPIC-IDC in partnership with KKS Germany has organized and sponsored a Workshop on Project Cycle Management. Mr. Wolfgang Dewalt facilitated the activity in which the JPIC-IDC Management Team and other three NGO's representatives took part. It was the proper and long awaited venue to level off the understanding on some basic steps to come up with a meaningful project proposal. It also helped to clarify concepts regarding the logical framework, plan of activities, monitoring and evaluation tools.
* The Nagkahiusang Pondok sa mga Kabus sa Lapu-lapu Multipurpose Cooperative (NAPOKALA-MPC) has concluded its 2-day Organizational Planning activity held on April 20 and 27 at the coop consumer store located in Mactan, Lapu-lapu City. The organizational plan was inspired by the Spiritual, Political, Economic, Cultural, Social and Ecological (SPECSE) framework being introduced by Frs. Anthony Salas, SVD and Marcelo Cattaneo, SVD, JPIC-IDC Executive Director and Technical Point Person respectively. The SPECSE framework originated from the Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC) that has long been espoused by the SVD missionaries in its partner peoples organizations (POs) in the Mindanao Island. The planning activity was well-attended by the new set of officers led by Ms. Aurora Casio. Fidel Mariveles and Mark Deximo facilitated the NAPOKALA-MPC planning.
* The NAPOKALA-MPC led by its newly-elected Chairperson Aurora Casio and fellow officials study-toured the Saint Arnold Janssen Homeowners Association (SAJAHOA) Inc. last May 7, 2007. The purpose of the visit was to learn from the experiences of the SAJAHOA in its livelihood and consumer store operations. Letlet Ruaza, SAJAHOA Coop Manager, shared her organization ups and downs and the challenges they are currently facing in catching up orders of tetra pack-made shoulder bags for export to Germany. She also shared how they prepare their monthly financial report, computation of their members yearly dividend and patronage refund. As a show of friendship between the two organizations, Ms. Aurora Casio presented a few of NAPOKALA-MPC hand-woven doormats to Ms. Ruaza. Before the visitors left, Ms. Ruaza accompanied the group in taking a last look at the houses funded by the Karl Kubel Stiftung (KKS).
* Dr. Maria Spiegel, a retired German medical doctor from Berlin Germany visited JPIC-IDC in March 2007. She spent time with Fr. Heinz Kulueke, svd, as he goes about his nightly journey with prostituted women in the red light district and street children of Cebu. She also had the chance to see the shadow side of the tourist destination Cebu by visiting the dumpsites and the informal settlers area of the city. From March 29 to April 2, Dr. Spiegel went with Fr. Anthony Salas, svd, our Executive Director, in a visit to Agusan del Sur, Mindanao. With Fr. Salas, she visited a district hospital in La Paz, had talked with several abused children in the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Crises Center in Patin-ay, had inter action with the Manobo youth who were undergoing technical training at the SVD (Steyler Missionare) Monobo Development Center in Bunawan, and visited a workplace for the alternative herbal medicine initiative in Veruela. The short visit provided Dr. Spiegel a glimpse of the magnitude of the human and economic struggles that majority of the Filipinos are facing everyday and yet to see also a glimmer of hope that things could change for the better through the small initiatives and activities which both JPIC and the SVDs are doing for the marginalized Filipinos.
* JPIC-IDC is just one of the 35,000 or so registered Non Government Organizations (NGO) in the Philippines. A question has always been asked how many of these NGOs are still operating and if they are still operating, are they really making contributions to the development and progress of Filipinos and Philippine society. This question needs looking into how NGOs are organized and managed in the Philippines. The two-day learning event which the Philippine Council for NGO Accreditation organized on April 20-21, 2007 hoped to widen the critical and practical measures that can be adopted by NGOs to achieve the desired performance standards. That learning event, attended by our executive director, clarified some organizational concerns and issues and deepened the resolved of JPIC to proceed with the PCNC accreditation. Should JPIC-IDC be a PCNC accredited NGO, the immediate benefit would not only be a Donee status for JPIC but a regular monitoring and assessment for JPIC to keep its organizational standards.
* Karl Kuebel Stiftung (KKS) of Germany and JPIC will organize a Project Management seminar on July 9-14, 2007. It will be attended by JPIC project mangers and directors and KKS other Philippine partners project managers. The seminar will hopefully establish a common ground among KKS Philippine partner NGOs both in the understanding and management of projects. A resource speaker from Germany will help the participants go through German project cycle management technology GOPP.
* The JPIC-IDC, Inc. Incorporators and Board of Trustees Meeting for the year 2007 has been held last April 12, 2007 at the SVD Provincialate Conference Room. There were eight (8) out of fifteen (15) incorporators and/or Board of Trustees present, namely: Dr. Filipina Sotto, Fr. Marcelo Cattaneo, SVD Fr. Anthony Salas, SVD, Sr. Estela Parmissano, SSpS, Fr. Heinz Kulueke, SVD, Fr. Maximo Abalos, SVD, Mr. Francisco Lanuza and Ms. Rosemarie Dizon.
The assembly has leveled off the status of Fr. Anthony Salas, SVD and Fr. Maximo Abalos, SVD as only ex-officio members of the Board of Trustees as Executive Directors of the two divisions of JPIC-IDC, Inc., the implementers division and the consultancy division. As Executive Directors, their duty is to manage and report on the operations of their particular division to the Board. In addition, the change and resignation of some inactive Incorporators and/or Board of Trustees has brought about the membership of Fr. Marcelo Cattaneo, SVD and Sr. Estela Parmissano, SSpS to the Board as member and Corporate Treasurer respectively. Thus, the official Board of Trustees will only maintain seven (7) members as stated in the By-Laws of JPIC-IDC, Inc. duly approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dated June 09, 2001.