While I really want to get into blogging about my first day on the job at RIMANSI right now, I’d like to lay out some basic things first to address some of the questions I’ve been getting repeatedly from friends, family and colleagues.  After I address these, I promise to share some juicy bits in my next entry.

Philippines for work?!  Really???  Why???  What are you going to do there???  These were the initial questions I got when I broke the news to my family and friends that I’ll be gone for the entire month of May to work in the Philippines.  As these questions came up (which usually did one after another without pause or any opportunity for me to answer), I could see the confusion and bewilderment in people’s eyes.  Since my family’s attention span would usually last a minute before the next question pops up (or before I lose their interest entirely), I had to come up with a quick answer that would convey the purpose of my trip:  I would be going away to volunteer with an organization called, “RIMANSI”, on issues related to risk identification, management and mitigation… with blessings from The Co-operators.

Huh?!  What’s RIMANSI?  It’s the short form for RIsk MANagement Solutions Incorporated, a regional resource centre established in 2005 by select mutual benefit associations (“MBAs“).  RIMANSI’s mandate is to [take a deep breath] help professionalize the management of MBAs and microinsurance programs that provide affordable, comprehensive and quality risk protection to millions of poor people in Southeast Asia by developing and offering risk management solutions to MBAs or other member-owned microinsurers.

In short, RIMANSI’s big picture goal is to strengthen the MBAs’ capacity to provide risk and social protection services (a.k.a. “insurance”) to the poor on a sustainable basis.

Where will you be working?  In Pasig City, Metro Manila at an organization called, “RIMANSI”.  Their office is in a high-rise commercial building in Ortigas Center, a financial and central business district located at the boundaries of Pasig City, Mandaluyong City and Quezon City within Metro Manila.

Cool… but why would your company send staff to a country it doesn’t conduct any business in?  Because The Co-operators is a super, awesome insurance co-operative that not only cares about the needs of Canadian communities, but also the needs of others in the global community.  The Co-operators has no business in the Philippines, but they do this kind of stuff to promote co-operation among co-operatives.

The Co-operators and the Canadian Co-operative Association partnered up on a pilot program offering international volunteering opportunities to Co-operators employees.  The volunteer placements would allow employees of The Co-operators to work for three weeks in co-operatives in the developing world.  As our president, Kathy Bardswick, has said, “the program will allow employees to see first-hand the difference co-operatives are making in regions much different from our own.”

So your mission in three words?  Help and learn!

Pretty neat.