The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has launched a community-managed savings and credit program that will initially benefit 10 conflict-affected villages in two Negros Oriental towns.

Dubbed the “AMUMA sa Barangay” program, this community-managed savings and credit association will be implemented in two villages in Canlaon City and eight others in Guihulngan City, said Farah Gentuya, DILG-Negros Oriental provincial director, on Thursday.

The AMUMA (a Cebuano word that means to nourish or to take care of) program is a brainchild of DILG Region 7 regional director Leocadio Trovela, aimed at empowering women and strengthening the capability of barangay governments in building and sustaining accountable, progressive, and self-reliant communities for the benefit of their constituents, Gentuya said.

The program will provide technical assistance to local governments to capacitate them in nurturing their constituents, particularly the vulnerable sectors to be self-reliant and independent and inculcate the importance of savings and good financial management.

Trovela paid tribute to the women’s sector during the launching of the program in Guihulngan on Feb. 15, and urged them to show “a unique kind of companionship, unity and meaningful concern for others.”

The 10 conflict-affected villages placed under the program are Barangays Bayog and Lumpao in Canlaon City, and Barangays Humay-humay, Binobohan, Planas, Hinakpan, Nagsaha, Villegas, Trinidad and Tacpao in Guihulngan City.

These are the same villages under the government’s program to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC) through a whole-of-nation approach.

Gentuya said some 200 women from these villages, accompanied by their barangay officials, attended the launching and received the “Amuma” box to be used for the safe-keeping of their savings. (PNA)