A basketful of blessings

Posted on August 10, 2022

Forty-six-year-old mother of three Mary Jane Pascua found life’s blessings in a native basket called tiklis.

Just like all mothers, Mary Jane Pascua from La Union aspires to give her children the best life.  This is why she strived to become a microentrepreneur in order to provide for her children, who she considers her greatest source of inspiration.

In 2012, she took a major step forward by joining CARD Bank, a Microfinance Oriented Rural Bank committed to delivering a wide range of loan and savings products, as well as other services, to clients’ businesses and families. Initially, she availed a loan to start a sari-sari store.

However, the income from the sari-sari store was usually not enough for their daily needs and the education of her three children. Mary Jane places a high value on her children’s education, so she ensures that her children would complete their education. She then took out educational loans to pay for their tuition fees.

Finally, her eldest child became an electrical engineer. As such, she considers her child a product of CARD Bank, Inc. As a result, their lives improved, and they were able to establish a new business.

The tiklis is a big native basket made of wooden bamboo or rattan splits that is used to store harvested fruits and vegetables. She borrowed from CARD Bank Inc., this time as an investment to purchase the materials and equipment needed to produce this. This is the business that has significantly improved their quality of life. As her allowable loan amount increases, she also started another business: selling of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in their area.

Her tiklis business now supports the education of her two other children, who are now both college students. She is very grateful to CARD Bank because, apart from the educational loan, she also has savings and insurance that she can use at any time of need. “Even if all of my children complete their schooling, I will not leave CARD Bank,” Mary Jane remarked.