March 8, 2024, is an eventful day for us and our Manila team as we celebrate 20 new signups to our Honor 1000 Microfinance Program! Fifteen of these mothers come from Brgy. San Pablo and our trusted coordinators carefully screened them to ensure their dedication.
We continue to empower more women through our microfinance program in the Philippines. We opened a new microfinance group in Bayan-Bayanan, one of the barangays in Dinalupihan, Bataan.
Currently, we have ten mothers attending our microfinance program orientation, where they express their commitment to pay back their loans and grow their businesses.
Puja, 32, is one of our My Business My Freedom (MBMF) microfinance program members in Nepal.
Kate and Glenn from Captivating recently visited Manila to check in on our programs in the Philippines.
One of their visits was to the recipients or beneficiaries of our microfinance program in Dinalupijan. During their time with each mother, they asked them how their business was doing and the challenges that they faced during the pandemic. They also visited a new client, Melvin, who was featured in our reports last March 2022 when she first got her loan. She started her quail raising business with 100 eggs & now, she has 650 laying quails & 1,500 chicks.
We are grateful that we were able to spend this time with our clients and see how they are doing firsthand. They repeatedly expressed their heartfelt gratitude to Captivating and Honor for the help and support.
Our Partners
Aside from providing loans for Filipinos through our microfinance program in the Philippines, one of the things we aim to do is start fellowship groups so we can provide the microfinance beneficiaries the necessary moral and emotional support as they start their small businesses.
We are grateful for this community and how they have been faithful to their obligations and to our policies. This is now the 6th group we have opened in the area of Barangay Roosevelt in Metro Manila. We want to recognize areas that are performing well by prioritizing them in our journey to growth.
We are thankful for the dedication that our field partner, Honor 1000, has given to this initiative to promote values to scale the group's financial commitment but also their moral standing.
Our fellowship groups are avenues to strengthen the community and foster harmonious relationships with the mothers. We believe that mothers can be agents of change in their communities.
Our Partners
Through our Microfinance Program in the Philippines, we are able to empower more mothers by helping them start their small businesses that can support their families. Here are just some of the beaming faces of the proud Filipina moms and their amazing business endeavors:
This is Angelica, a proud mother of four and wife to a farmer. She partners with her husband in their business of selling both unpolished and polished rice. When it is not harvest season, they maximize the land that they plow by planting onions, garlic, and other vegetables that are in season. This is to ensure that they have income all year round. When it is harvest season for rice, she is able to sell 100-125 kilos of rice every week. She is grateful to our field partner in the Philippines' support through HONOR 1000 that they are able to have enough capital to reach this point in their business. Not only her business, but her accomplishment is in having all of her children finish their studies. Through their income, they were also able to extend their house to have a bigger kitchen space.
Kristine started her small convenience store renting a little space. During the height of the pandemic when the local government was still restricting movement, her community relied on her store to buy their necessities and even ready made food. Because of this, even as the restrictions lifted, the relationship built with her customers made them regulars to her store. Through her hard work, her own store space was also completed. Her new space is just beside her rented store so her regulars can still find her store. By minimizing her expense, Kristine is determined to consistently save as her youngest is yet to start school. Her two older children just started elementary level and senior high respectively.
Before her small sari-sari store, Melannie earned by reselling products and electronic load. Because her products were not necessities, she was hit hard by the pandemic and had to transition her business to something more stable. With her only child also entering Senior High soon, she knows that this transition is necessary. She focused more on having a sari sari store. Through our teams help, she was able to put more stocks in her store. She also sells snacks and drinks, and recently purchased a burger griller. We will continue serving and empowering mothers like Melannie as they make bold decisions to ensure their children's future.
Help More Filipinos Break Away from the Cycle of Poverty
With your support of AU$385/US$270, we will be able to provide a Filipino mom with a small business loan. Click on the links below to know more.
Our Partners
Because of the pandemic, most of the Philippines has been placed on lockdown since last year. This has challenged our program to adapt and comply with the health protocols that each municipality has set. We are grateful to have a dedicated team who diligently visits each area and client.
A few weeks ago, the Philippines was taken aback by a series of quakes that shook several provinces in the Central to Northern part of Luzon and some other provinces in Visayas, causing severe damage to properties and lives -But not this microfinance group in the rural parts of Bataan.
Mina was married at the age of 15. Now, at 32, her and her husband have a daughter and two sons. She was from a poor farming family. She tells us her story. “I started a ‘Chatpat’ (a quick sour, chilly snack) selling business with an investment of about Rs. 2,000 (US$17) as that’s all my family could afford. I was able to earn around Rs. 1,000 (US$8) daily and although this was not much, it boosted my confidence. That was 6 years ago. I wanted to grow my business but I wasn’t able to get a loan."
