Even if they are in their 60s, Julema Ebale, Naida Parang, Kumalah Awang and Airia Obeso are still productive members of society, engaged in entrepreneurial activities like managing their respective small businesses. These senior entrepreneurs said ASA Philippines gave them a new lease of life.
“ASA Philippines gave us hope and an opportunity to pursue our livelihood by offering microfinance services with easy payment modes and rates that are fair to us,” Ebale said.
ASA Philippines is a nonprofit, nonstock corporation specializing in microfinance. The first branch that the foundation established was in Camarin, Caloocan, in August 2004. Currently, the foundation has already expanded its operations nationwide. The foundation caters to more than 1.8 million micro entrepreneurs. Senior members of ASA Philippines can avail themselves of its services until they reach 70 years old.
ASA Philippines Foundation was conceptualized by Kamrul H. Tarafder, who started work in the microfinance industry with ASA Bangladesh. In 1998, he began working jointly with ASA Bangladesh and the United Nations Development Program teaching the ASA methodology to more than 20 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the Philippines. In August 2003, Tarafder met with Ambassador Howard Q. Dee (former ambassador of the Philippines to the Holy See and Malta) to discuss the social and economic benefits received by the poor from microfinance operations. Soon after, in 2004, with donations from the Assisi Development Foundation and the Ninoy and Cory Aquino Foundation, ASA Philippines Foundation was born.
In November 2007, PLDT-Smart Foundation joined as a third benefactor. Since then, ASA Philippines has not obtained any grant and, unlike other foundations, it pledges not to source any more. With its excellent performance in the field, ASA Philippines has become one of the best performing MFIs in the country.
Awang, who is a fruit seller, is grateful that ASA Philippines is also helping her son to finish his criminology degree. “I borrowed money to help my son’s education and buy two bancas for my business,” said the 67-year-old Awang.
“Now, I am planning to get financing from ASA Philippines to renovate my house,” she added.
Currently, she said her customers are increasing and she continues to deliver fruits to them.
Obeso, 62, started selling dry goods, such as bulad and charcoal. She buys them in bulk and repacks them to sell to her customers. When she enrolled at ASA Philippines, Obeso diversified into dry goods and batik coming from Zamboanga. At the same time, Obeso is working with the Davao City government as an anti-littering enforcer. Now on her 18th cycle, Obeso is the most senior among her group members.
“I like ASA Philippines’s policy of teaching financial management to individual members because as a borrower, I become responsible for my own loan.
Obeso also teaches the Pangalay, the Tausug traditional dance, to young students in Davao. In fact, she went to New York and Malaysia to perform the Pangalay under the auspices of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Obeso is a seven-time champion of the Pangalay in Davao and the Kalinangan Festival in General Santos.
Meanwhile, Ebale (63) and Parang (65), who are both engaged in selling gravel and sand, said business is doing well especially when there are major construction activities. They plan to buy additional banca for the delivery of their products. “We have to be diligent in our collection from our customers so that we can regularly settle our obligations to ASA Philippines,” they said.
Aside from providing them financial loans, ASA Philippines also provides a P200 daily allowance when they get sick. Furthermore, ASA Philippines allocates rice, canned goods and other items when they become victims of natural disasters.
Ebale is thankful that she and her family have been able to carve a better life in Davao after she joined the Islamic Financing program of ASA Philippines Foundation.
Earlier, Parang adopted a wait and see attitude on ASA Philippines. Then she learned from her friends that ASA Philippines has helped a lot of members not only in microfinancing but also through their programs like disaster recovery assistance, scholarships, solar power systems donations to the poorest barangays, and KasilyASAn, among others. Under the KasilyASAn program, Ebale said a lot of clients were able to build toilets for their houses.
ASA Philippines helps a lot of poor people. I have been a member for more than a year, and I made good progress in my business since I got my first loan release of P8,000, Ebale said. For the second cycle, they gave me P20,000 and P50,000 on the third time.
“It is really hard to run a business if you don’t have capital, especially if natural disaster strikes. We are blessed that ASA Philippines came into our lives,” the senior members chorused.