26 Bohol entrepreneurs 

Complete 12-wk KMME 

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, November 1 (PIA)—When the course could cost thousands of pesos when taken in formal school, it was only for patience, perseverance and serious dedication for 26 mentees who completed the KapatidMento Micro-Entrepreneurs (KMME) Program in Bohol. 

During the graduation rites at the Panda tea Garden Pavillion and Suites, a sight impaired graduate who manages a blind musicians group has in their care a recording studio as a Shared Service Facility (SSF) given by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said he never thought he could share in the blessings of being mentored by the best in the country, for free. 

Junare Baculio, a blind musician and president of the Bohol PWD Workers Association said he struggled not to miss any of the 12 weekly sessions as it would complete the skills he would need to run the SSF and manage the Blind Mates in their performances. He attended all the sessions guided by a friend. 

Brought by the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship, Go Negosyo, DTI and in coordination with the Bohol Chamber of Commerce and Industry, KMME is among the country’s interventions to capacitate local micro, small and medium enterprises to cope up with the challenge of opened trade barriers and the expanding global economies. 

According to DTI Bohol Provincial Director Maria Soledad Balistoy, KMME brings to Bohol respected entrepreneurs who play big brothers to our entrepreneurs and give them free advice, teaching them the basics of business sustainability. 

Apart from the 12 sessions, the mentees also get continuing mentoring sessions from the pool of mentors which the government provides under the agreement with PCE and the local chamber coordinators. 

This batch’s graduates include ModestorSimacon Jr., AnaflorGumera, Carmelita Barro, RitchelTabel, Emerita Azuecena, JunareBaculio, EvilioCaugo, CleofeTecson, Emily Cabintoy, AnecitaLadaga, Cecilia Busano, MelitonTolop, Maria Betinol. 

LeonidezaBelleca, Joan Dumangog, Bernardo Karaan, Audrey Anne Arellano, Alma Esterado, Nikki Ann Pedida, Rosa IglesiaSarabosing, Michelle Alhajeri, Ma.ChonalGellidon, Louell JeanneLorzano, Joan Caturza and Patricia Monsida. 

While some of these entrepreneurs were picked for the SSF they manage, most have been investing in priority clusters like food as banana chips, homestyle and decors, coffee, cacao and chocolates, chemicals as in shampoo, bath soaps and lotions, corn coffee, ice cream, tourism services like music, and restaurants. 

Courses for the KMME program includes product development, marketing, business operations processes, accounting and book keeping taxation, investments and obligations and contracts. 

Also in the sessions are human resource management, value chain and business planning. 

Other than mentoring sessions, the mentees are also eligible to share in the use of the DTI SSF all over Bohol. 

The 26 graduates are the 5th Batch of the KMME that started in Bohol in 2017, according to the DTI. 

Since 2017, the 5th batch graduates would give Bohol its 151st mentee graduate in a program that has not had any enrolee dropping out from the sessions, revealed DTI Regional Director Asteria Caberte. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol) 

BRING BOHOL PRODUCTS INTO THE MAINSTREAM. 26 KMME graduates representing investors, manager and owners of promising Bohol products get free mentoring to make sure they can survive in the opening of the global markets. KMME is a project of the PCE, Go Negosyo, DTI and BCCI in Bohol. (PIABohol)