Last May 29, Globe Telecom and ABS-CBN Bayan Foundation Inc. signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the continued implementation of the project, which aims to help empower community leaders and enhance sustainable development in selected communities all over the country.
The pioneering project, now on its second year, provides capacity-building training and livelihood opportunities for barangay councils and micro-entrepreneurs.
The program helps participants identify potential community-based businesses and provides them with skills on strategic planning, financial management, and marketing.
It encourages communities, through their leaders, to get actively involved in livelihood activities and promote starting small business for families and community welfare.
Globe BridgeCom sa Bayan was implemented last year in over 450 barangays nationwide. This year, Globe targets more barangays to benefit from this project.
Aside from teaching commu-nities how to start their own busi-nesses and developing entrepre-neurial skills, the program also teaches how mobile technologies like the Globe Autoload Max, Globe’s over-the-air reloading service, and G-Cash, its electronic wallet service, can help expand micro-businesses and enable networking with consumers and fellow entrepreneurs in the community.
In its first year alone, Globe BridgeCom sa Bayan was recog-nized for its many accom-plishments and has received the Anvil Award from the Public Relations Society of the Philippines and the Gold Quill Award from the International Association of Business Communicators.
In his speech during the MOA signing, Globe Telecom president and CEO Gerardo Ablaza Jr. reiterated Globe’s commitment to help communities in maximizing their local resources and skills to develop their own enterprises, especially during these trying times.
"To be able to make a difference, businesses should address the challenges of poverty with a commensurate level of response and commitment," Ablaza said.
"Small entrepreneurs are today’s wealth creators and will be tomorrow’s big companies. We, in Globe Telecom, wish to be a signi-ficant part of that vision," he added.
Globe Telecom Consumer Business Group head Ferdinand de la Cruz, in his speech, affirmed that the Globe BridgeCom project is the company’s unique contribution to help uplift the lives of Filipinos and in the process help eradicate.
"We, in Globe, believe that our contribution to society should go beyond traditional philanthropy. This is the reason why our corporate social responsibility initiatives are highly integrated into core business strategy… Globe BridgeCom sa Bayan has gone to hundreds of communities teaching people how to identify the right business, run it, and make it sustainable for them, their respective families, and their communities."
A panel discussion was also held during the event moderated by broadcast journalist Ces Orena Drilon.
Ablaza, ABS-CBN Bayan Foundation chairwoman Regina Paz Lopez and president Eduardo Morato, Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship executive director Imelda Madarang, and UN Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative Nileema Noble took part in the discussion.
The panel discussed how the private sector and various organizations could work together to strengthen community entrepre-neurship.
The panelists shared how their different organizations’ programs help unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of Filipinos in their communities.