Author: jvomfi

A couple from Atok Trail, Baguio City, Florence and Albert Fabian, started with an initial loan of 5,000 Pesos. This helped them purchase a welding machine and pay for one-month’s rent for their business in iron works.

Florence has been a member of Jaime V. Ongpin Foundation since February 2007. She never misses her payment and maintained to be a good payer. She has been with JVOFI and now she is currently on her 23rd cycle of loan and able to loan the principal amount of 75,000 pesos.

Albert used to be a laborer while Florence was a fulltime housewife. Albert, gained his experience in iron works by working for other iron works shops before while Florence attended business management training offered by JVOFI. Now, they co-manage their iron works business and from a single welding machine, they now have a bar cutter, grinder drill and electric drill. They also started another business of making foot rugs.

According to Florence, they are able to grow their business through prayer and hard work. They have also grown their client base not only in Baguio City but also from neighboring provinces like Benguet and La Union. “Sales is good and income has doubled from when we first started,” she attested. Through their business they are able to help other people by providing regular jobs. They currently have three employees and she plans to grow their business more so they can hire more people.

A native of Atok, Benguet, Mrs. Aurora Eslao or “Auring” as everyone calls her is a quintessential entrepreneur. She balances several businesses in different places and still looking forward for business expansion.

She has retail stores – a sari-sari store and 2nd hand clothes store (wag-wagan) at Sayangan, Atok; boarding houses in Balili, La Trinidad and in Sayangan, Atok and a piggery at Puguis, La Trinidad. On top of that she helps in their vegetable farm and leads a group of women called Sassy Girls Puguis Women’s Brigade Volunteer.

But it has not always been like this. She started as a vendor at Vegetable Trading post in La Trinidad. When she stopped working at the Vegetable Trading post she only had three pigs and so she wanted to look for other means to generate income.

She learned of JVOFI microfinance and started with an initial loan of 5,000 pesos. She is now at her 18th cycle of loan with a principal amount loan of 61,000 pesos. Within these five years she was able to convert her old house into a 14 room apartment with retail stores. She now employs two regular workers in her businesses and her sons have their own cars and their own businesses.

As a leader of the Sassy Girls group Puguis Women’s Brigade Volunteer under PNP, she is active in patrolling the neighbourhood after curfew hours. She also helps in disseminating information on health awareness like alert on Dengue, she extends help financially the members of her group and stands as an advisor when her group needs help on processing important documents and gives counsel on family related issues.

She is now starting to expand her business at Sison, Pangasinan where she bought a piece of land for another piggery.

She used to be a housewife while her husband drives a taxi (not their own) before they’ve become a certified micro entrepreneur.

Andrea made her first loan in 2011. She used this to purchase goods to start a retail (sari-sari) store. She admits there is little profit in retail store business in their area due to increasing number of competition. She tried another business, a water refilling station and fortunately revenues from the water refilling station is much higher than the retail store. Mrs. Andrea Dagdague is now at her 13th cycle with the principal amount of 78,000 and serves clients from La Trinidad, Baguio and Beckel.

“We try to refrain from spending and we save,” that’s how she puts it, when asked how she grew her business. Although there are also some challenges like people who don’t pay their credit from the store, or people who don’t return their water gallons. We still strive to make it work despite setbacks, she added.  We just make sure to maintain cleanliness with our water and our gallons to make our clients come back.

We can now give more allowance to our children, we were able to buy a ref and a Hi Ace Van, “Nakakapag-outing na kami, dati kasi hindi kami masyado nakakalabas” (We can go on vacation now, before we were not able to do so) she quipped.

Now, she helps the community by employing four workers, three of whom are their neighbors. In order to accommodate more workers, she plans to widen her business area and expand her business.