CARD disburses 31.8M to sari-sari store owners

In November 2013, the Philippines was one of the unfortunate countries affected by Super Typhoon Yolanda, internationally known as Typhoon Haiyan. It was one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever landed in the country which caused catastrophic damage throughout the islands of Samar and Leyte.

One of the thousands who were affected is Divina Bertulfo from Jaro, Leyte. In order to bounce back after the wreck caused by the super typhoon, she needed additional capital for her sari-sari store.

Across the Philippines, sari-sari stores are family-owned and located on every street in every community. The network of sari-sari stores also account for almost 70% of sales of manufactured consumer food products.

Divina is one of the beneficiaries of PREMIUM Project of Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) Inc. (A Microfinance NGO), Microventures Foundation (MVF), most commonly referred as the Hapinoy, and RiMANSI Organization for Asia and the Pacific, Inc. (RiMANSI), with the Canadian Cooperative Association (CCA), now the Co-operative Development Foundation of Canada, as the implementing figure, and Global Affairs Canada (GAC) as the funder.

Back to business

Project Bagong Araw: Rebuilding through Microinsurance and Women’s Microenterprises in the Philippines (PREMIUM) is a three year program that helps sari-sari store owners affected by Typhoon Yolanda. The program is expected to achieve its ultimate goal of having an improved economic well-being for men and women affected by typhoon.

CARD, Inc. Executive Director Jocelyn Dequito shared that “the project aims to equip the beneficiaries with skills and knowledge to successfully manage their business and help them become more resilient in times of disaster through accessing financial services including microinsurance products.”

“I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to everybody behind the PREMIUM Project. This helped a lot especially with our daily expenses,” said Divina.

Since the main objective of PREMIUM Project is to capacitate growth-oriented microentrepreneurs who can be part of building a resilient supply chain in the region, it provides sari-sari store owners proper training about business management and continuity and product diversification and expansion, store owner loan funds, and disaster risk mitigation micro-insurance.

“CARD, Inc. takes part in reaching out to our unfortunate kababayans who were affected by Super Typhoon Yolanda. We also matched the P4.3 million fund provided by GAC and CDF Canada,” said Dequito.

As of October 2018, after almost two years of implementation, 2,251 sari-sari store owners were given the opportunity to start their lives after Yolanda through accessing affordable loans. This already surpassed its original target of 1,600 by the end of its run in March 2019.

“We are happy to share that aside from exceeding the number of target beneficiaries, we have also disbursed a total of P31.8 million funds to support the initiative,” Dequito added.

CARD, Inc. was founded in 1986, which aims to improve the quality of life of the socioeconomically challenged women and their families by providing microfinance, microinsurance, business development services and training, and community development programs.