From a thousand to fifteen

A grocery store is a huge place to buy one’s basic needs such as food, water, and hygiene supplies. Doing groceries take a lot of time and effort because one has to travel to the place then back home, spend for transportation, and pour energy to look around for the things you need in the store. Since Filipinos always love shortcuts, one can already do groceries with so much energy reserved. This is called the Sari-Sari Store.

A sari-sari store is a neighborhood convenience store that offers a variety of products, just like a grocery store. This is sometimes a family-owned business and has helped many Filipino families economically. One of them is Marilyn Tuñacao.

Marilyn is a resident of Maracas, Cebu City and is married to Francis Tuñacao with three children. Francis is a goldsmith from a private company. In order to help with the expenses, Marilyn turned a part of their home into a sari-sari store.

Her first store was put up in 2005 with PHP1,000 capital. It was only filled with the basic needs of a house such as toiletries, spices and condiments, among others. She started with a small amount only because of financial reasons and a trial if the business will work.

Marilyn saw that her store was earning and had helped supporting the finances in the household. After two years, she decided to step up her game. Marilyn came across with CARD, Inc. (A Microfinance NGO), which helped her in supporting her store.

From only a thousand pesos, Marilyn increased her capital to PHP15,000. Not only this, her store offered more varieties of products for the people to buy. Moreover, she added one more store in an area near the Provincial Capitol of Cebu City. It was a big leap of faith to Marilyn because it was a lot of money to invest and she did not know if her store could sustain such big capital.

Now, her stores are operating for 13 years. Marilyn thanked her husband for giving her all the support she needed while putting up with her stores, and especially to CARD, Inc. that never failed in giving financial assistance whenever she needed one.

“I am very much thankful for CARD because they allowed me to loan money for my business to continue in operating up until now. The six months loan term in CARD helped me a lot because I do not need to pay in rush. I have an ample time to pay for the money I loaned,” said Marilyn.

Marilyn has been a CARD, Inc. member for 11 years. CARD, Inc. is a social development organization that provides financial and community development services to socioeconomically challenged women and their families.

The joint hard work of Marilyn and her husband coupled with CARD’s assistance, the Tuñacao family was able to send their three kids in good schools. Marilyn also mentioned that she will always be faithful to CARD because she knows that it will always be there to provide the financial assistance she and her whole family need.