Last September 17-18, 2022, ZABIDA conducted the first ever IGIs General Assembly at Executive Lounge, Astoria Hotel, Zamboanga City

This was actively participated by 20 IGIs, 3 representatives from Animal Dispersal group-East and West Coast, and K5 Housing.

The two-day activity aims to acknowledge, recognize and celebrate their accomplishments and discuss the future direction for sustaining their Income Generating Initiatives (IGIs), this was overall facilitated by the consultant for IGI, Ms Welma L. Omboy and through the help of the IGI Mentors: Raquel Olivo, Joseph Ledesma, Edwin Araneta, Rosalie Inso, Jun Nortiga, Raymond Delos Santos, Nujom Hadjibata, Cristian Gumalo, Arnold Balbuena, Jesamine Pollisco, and John Canto who journeyed with them to successfully learn for the improvement of their livelihood.

On the first day of the assembly, they were clustered based on their area of focus and were given situational analysis to better understand their problem and come up solutions, one of which was the value chain approach. Mr. Jun Nortiga of the Land Bank of the Philippines, Zamboanga City Lending Center introduced the livelihood groups to Cooperative development and how it could help the IGIs.  Ms. Rosalie Inso, President of the Barangay Buluan Fisherfolk Organization, shared their success story about the Savings Club and how it was a self-help strategy for their organization.  

On the second day, the livelihood groups were presented with the different types of cooperatives, how they work, policies and systems. As an output, they were tasked to come up with their calendar of activities of their plans for the remaining months  which they presented at the end of the assembly.

This activity is under the Human Rights Services Component of the Convenio 3 Project, supported by AECID through Manos Unidas.