By: Kilian S. Deveza & Joel V. Zamayla
Bangko sa Balay Foundation, Inc. (BBFI) has shifted its transformative journey for growth and development to a new paradigm. It now begins with a simple question: “Are you interested to have a savings box?” This is our new way of trying to gauge the saving perceptions of our clients so we can address accordingly their need to sustain their savings. Along with the concept of understanding their savings perception BBFI is providing a savings box for our clients who wish to save with us. Last April 20, 2012 we have started piloting twenty (20) savings boxes in Gingoog while Carmen branch is looking forward to have fifty (50).
Clients’ responses after being offered with a savings box will definitely open fruitful conversation were information can be acquired and thus an appropriate course of action can be designed base on the generated pool of knowledge. In principle we are adopting Ben Stein’s way of doing things: “The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is to decide what you want”. From then we at BBFI can redesign our savings product in such a way that it will run complementary to our client’s dream.
Thomas Woodrow Wilson once said: “We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter’s evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true”. Indeed, dreams play a crucial role in our life. We may vary with our dream, but there is one dream common to all human in the aspect related to growth and development. Everybody longs for the improvement of the quality of life like having a decent house, being able to pay the children’s quality education and having enough food in the table. But how far can we sustain dreaming in a place where approximately almost half of the total population are living with a monthly household income below the poverty line? Does improvement of the quality of life still possible or will it remains a glittering façade in sky beyond our reach? How can we possibly help these people shape a better future?
Tabañag (2008), in his book entitled “Kaya mo Pinoy! 12 Steps to Build Wealth on Any Income”, asserts that one can only sustain a good quality of life after attaining financial stability. He further contends that financial stability is best attained through setting aside an amount of savings for the rainy days. Enough savings capacitates a family to better handle financial emergency aside from keeping a healthier relationship. Our experience at BBFI suggests that these saving concepts are easier said than done. For instance, after more than four (4) years of business operations, BBFI Gingoog clients’ have struggled to accumulate an average savings of PhP3695.47, or a meagre one hundred two pesos and 59/100 cents per month which is way below the three hundred pesos (PhP300) per month average savings of 70% of the Filipino professionals at the national level which Tabañag has cited. These in a way imply the need for a two-tier approach in order to address the challenge of crafting a better and brighter future growth of the Filipino community through savings generations. First, for those who have a good- income source the concept of setting aside an amount for future emergencies or uses has yet to be dealt with. This further suggests that there is a need to pursue with motivational change within this sector. Second, for those who have no stable income, especially the farming communities, before engaging them to develop sound savings mechanism and to have a meaningful choice, there must exist alternative farm-based opportunities that do not alienate these people from the land that sustained their existence.
BBFI albeit recognizes the need to provide an alternative and stable income source of the household, as a financial intermediary however (that fosters financial literacy among our clients) we are more concern on addressing motivational change. This is not to undermine the need for establishing an alternative livelihood that does not alienate the farmers from the land where they live and grow their food. We just don’t want to duplicate the role of Katilingbanong Pamahandi sa Mindanaw Foundation, Incorporated (KPMFI) – our sister non-government organization that has been successful in assisting the small farmers to venture in the backyard broiler poultry production. We therefore contend to play a complementary role with our sister organization.
Transforming the poor households to become entrepreneur is more difficult if we fail to address their poor saving habit which is a manifestation of an interplay of many underlying factors like apathy, attitude of dependency, low educational attainment, family history and discrimination to name a few. Consequently, this whole new though about saving habit has change the whole context of savings into a more complex undertaking. This may sound a bet complicated, however it is through untangling the minute details of a jigsaw puzzle and arranging it piece-by-piece that enables us to see and appreciate the whole picture. In other words, the task of motivating our clients to save is becoming more challenging at one end while at the other extreme, it is becoming easier. The process of generating savings becomes lengthier while making it more attainable.
Understanding the clients saving perception before motivating them to save is closely associated with building a house. No one can gauge the strength of the building or the structure without getting into the details of the design, the materials being use and the depth of the foundations among others. It is imperative therefore that in order to generate savings from our target clients, we at BBFI has to understand how these clients view savings at their end. We need to know from them both the motivating and hindering factors that influence their desire to save. (This is now the exact opposite of what we used to do where we fed our clients with information about the benefits of savings aside from giving them prescriptive strategies to save.) Other than that, there is also the necessity to provide a favourable environment for their saving desire to prosper. Hence for a price of One Hundred pesos (PhP100.00) only we are providing a – savings box for every client who wishes to save with us.
So, come on: own a savings box, save a penny today and have your dream come true tomorrow!