BEFORE Christmas, Justine Lynn Canda Limocon, a resident of Lamac, Pinamungajan in Cebu, received the Joe Biden Award for Development Educator of the Year 2017 in a ceremony held at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Hotel, Bloomsbury, London.
Popularly called the Biden Awards, it acknowledges the achievements of individual development educators working on a variety of projects to improve the lives and opportunities of the less-fortunate people in their countries.
Limocon, who represented the Philippines, was the only Asian awardee. Other winners included Paul Dawson of Australia, Carla Decker of the Caribbean Islands, and Christina Stoneman of Wales.
Currently, Limocon heads the business development center of Lamac MPC and is one of the active leaders of her town.
Aside from the Biden, Limocon also brought home the Best Film Production – Edward Filene Credit Union Award for Performance Excellence for her engaging short film highlighting the numerous and inspirational activities engaged in by her credit union, the Lamac Multipurpose Cooperative.
The Joe Biden Award for Development Educator of the Year and the Edward Filene Credit Union Award for Performance Excellence, together with the Edward Filene Award for Social Entrepreneurship and the Beacon Credit Union of the Year Award are the four major awards given by the United Kingdom Credit Union. The annual ceremony, which gathers the best cooperators from around the world, is dubbed as UK’s credit union Oscars.
This year’s ceremonial speaker was Marlene Shiels, OBE FCIBS, I-CUDE, the chief executive officer of the Capital Credit Union Ltd. based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
In September 2016, Limocon won her first international award, the Best Coop Pitch award, during the First International Cooperative Alliance – Asia and the Pacific Coop Youth Summit in Indonesia. (PR)