Pat Sarenas

Balay Mindanaw warmly congratulates Ms Patricia Sarenas as the new Chairperson of the Caucus of Development NGO Network.

Pat, as she is fondly called, is the newly elected Chairperson of CODE NGO. CODE NGO is the biggest coalition of NGOs working for social development in the Philippines. It has 6 national networks and 6 regional networks, representing more than 1,600 development NGOs, people's organizations and cooperatives nationwide.

Pat sits in the National Board of Trustees of CODE NGO representing MINCODE where she is also the Chairperson. She is the current Chairperson of the Mindanao Congress of NGOs and NGIs or MINCON, a member of MINCODE.

Pat is the first ever Mindanaoan in the history of CODE NGO to head this national network’s board. CODE NGO says this is “the first time since CODE-NGO was founded 20 years ago that the seat is assumed by a representative from a regional network.” Thus the network hopes “to bring a stronger voice and involvement of members from the regions in the network affairs.”   

While MINCON is an aggrupation of Mindanao-based non-government organizations and non-government individuals, MINCODE is the regional network of development NGO networks in Mindanao.

Balay Mindanaw and its partner NGOs are members of the MINCON General Assembly. The foundation shares the secretariat role of MINCON with TACDRUP (Technical Assistance Center for the Development of Rural and Urban Poor).