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SLEMCOOP PROFILE

5 Years and Counting

wh tstarted 25 years ago as asmall pool of monetary contributions by50 employees of the So . Leyte ProvincialGovernment has widened and expandedenough to sustain the operations of whatis now known as the So. Leyte EmployeesMulti-Purpose Cooperative (SLEMCOOP) .

SLEMCOOP provides savings and creditservices to a throng of over 1,400 members who are employees from differentgovernment agencies in Southern Leyte .Side by side wi th the business operationof the cooperative runs its social-concernarm - the SLEMCOOP Foundation, whichhosts developmental programs such asthe Vegetable Production and the BambooCraft projects.

Its current financial profile reads: Assets- P120M, Share Capital - P34M, Deposits- P58M, and Loans Receivable - P69M.

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SLEMCOOP has one main office located in Bry . Asuncion, Maasin City, Southern Leyte and two branches - one locatedin Bry. Tunga-tunga, Maasin City and another one soon to open in the town of San Juan, So. Leyte .

The cooperative i s a proud affiliate of the Federation for People 's Sustainable Development Cooperative (FPSDC)and the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO) , whose resi lience in providing venues for the cultivationand dissemination of cooperative education in the country has given great advantage for the growth of cooperativeknowledge among primary cooperatives like SLEMCOOP.

THE ROOTS

It was 1984 when 50 employees of the provincial government pooled in P64,000 as initial assets to serve the creditneeds of fellow employees at the time and it was a clear reflection of their faith in their vision statement.

The early members equipped themselves with a vision to be responsive to the changing and varying needs of its . ,members who commonly aspire to promote cooperativism and to achieve total human development . The cooperative 5

Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws were then drafted by fifteen members in 1986 and it became the basis ofSLEMCOOP's services and programs.

PROGRAMS AND SERVICES

SLEMCOOP was able to pave the way and install its foundations by offering savings and credit services to its members.The implementation of social programs involving mortuary , health care, livelihood, and retirement were taking placealong with the growing business operations of the cooperative.

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Restructuring of the Programs

In line with this development, the cooperative wasable to compartmentalize its business function, whichoperation entails financial discipline, and its socialobligation to the community where SLEMCOOP hasbecome a part of after years of operation.

This resulted to the re-structuring of the socialprograms and services under the SLEMCOOPFOUNDATION leaving the savings and creditoperations under the cooperative .

When the cooperative's Social Concern Programrequires the money in giving hospitalizationassistance to non-members who cannot affordtheir medical bills, it now gets its funding from theprofits generated by the selling of generic drugs at

the Health Plus Shop-in-a-Shop franchise, whichSLEMCOOP also bought in 2005.

Vegetable and amboo Craft Projects

In 2006, SLEMCOOP took the opportunity to participate in the vegetable production project of DTI. It wasfunded and technically supported by the GermanDevelopment Service (OED). The cooperative founda dual advantage -- to help in the livelihood of thevegetable farmers and to supply the demand forvegetables in Southern Leyte.

This became the precursor of the cooperative's

' (IN rorcis he H ~a l t h P l u sS h ~ p - i ~ ~ a " : S h o.p at the So. l ., y 1; ' p ; ; v i ~c i al t f 0 sp l t e lwasI ought by SLEMCOOP In 2005 . The profit it generates is used to fund the coop's . 1Social Concern Program. Meanwhile, SLEMCOOP continues the program or tstVegetable Production Project, Which was started in 2006 . Fresh vegetables wm e .a v a l l a b l e~ _ . 1 1 ~ ~ r ' . l >.~ C _ < ?. Q : ~ . . . I l . _ t l e' 1 : ~- ~ L E M O O PBuilding . :.. : .

experience in getting involved with developmental projects in which both the coop and the community could reapgrea t advantage but would require more time and effort in terms of research, funding, and implementation.

The Bamboo Craft Project is another existing example of SLEMCOOP's endeavors in this field. The project aims toproduce treated bamboo materials, which could later on be marketed as useful products for the making of furnitureand o ther fixtures for home-building .

CREDIT and S VINGS OPER TIONS

There are 3 kinds of loans that SLEMCOOP are offering toits members . SLEMCOOP has expanded its loanwindows and created specialized loans such as vehicleloan, educational loan, and grocery loan in order to addressthe changing and varying needs of its members .

Handling issues like increasing the savings deposits,designing income-g e nerating programs, battling thedelinquency, or meeting the standards of the Cooper a tiveDevelopment Agency has enabled SLEMCOOPto be more conscious of the challenges involved in t h ~operations of a cooperative and, eventually, the l e a r n i n ~,that comes with the experience . AKQ

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'(IN FOTOS) .The improvement of SLEMCOOP's loa n p o r t f o l i ~ I ~an .important thrust of the current management. ~ o n gthe 3 k i ~ : N ~ In ,. loan s th at SLEMCOOP offers to coop m e m ~ r sis h ~RJCEnLamountof ~. th e s ummary of loa n r e leases f;om las t ye ars p e r a t i o n ~ .a nsumptioll

P6,337, 350 .20 was a vailed ~ Y coop memb ers for th.air n co . ... ,