Tuesday, October 22, 2013

TEE Attendees Visit Magdalena Campus

Participants in Transformative Economic Empowerment (TEE), an international training session for micro finance workers, visited the Magdalena campus of the Training and Development Institute (TDI) of the Center for Community Transformation (CCT) to get an overview and feel of CCT’s ministry among out-of-school youth and unemployed or underemployed males.  TEE is a joint activity of CCT and the Ka-Partner network, a consortium of US-based organizations ministering to the poor. 

 The TDI campus in Magdalena, Laguna offers a two-year vocational / technical course called Building Construction and  Maintenance with competencies in electrical installation and maintenance, masonry, rough carpentry, and plumbing.  It is also a boarding school for a second set of students – male, former street dwellers between the ages of 10 and 19.  (The boarding school for former street dwellers is being overseen by the Visions of Hope Foundation, which, along with TDI, is a member of the CCT Group of Ministries.)

Ruth Callanta, CCT founder and president, said the training session allows the sharing of CCT’s best practices and stories,  benefiting the poor of other nations. The TEE attendees were from Sri Lanka, Peru, India, Moldova, Zambia, Kenya, Thailand, Uganda, and the US. The main theme of this gathering was leadership and vision, and spiritual integration in micro finance. Speakers included CCT Chairman Bertram Lim, Ruth Callanta, and social anthropologists Dr. Melba Maggay and Dr. Miriam Adeney.   

The founding members of the Ka Partner network are endPoverty, Five Talents, Hope International, and Peer Servants. 

After viewing a presentation about programs and services offered at the campus, listening to the testimony of one  of the students, and touring the buildings, many of the guests enjoyed some shooting practice with members of the campus soccer team. 

The main venue of the training session was the Tagaytay Retreat and Training Center in Tagaytay City.