NGO turns 11,000 poor families in Sorsogon into entrepreneurs
November 21st, 2009
SORSOGON CITY, Nov. 18 (PNA) ? As part of its commitment towards poverty alleviation, a non-government organization serving as a microfinance institution (MFI) based here has so far produced 11,000 small and medium scale entrepreneurs (SMEs) from the poorest of the poor families across Sorsogon.
From practically nothing in life, these families are now engaged in various successful ventures ranging from fish trading to handicraft manufacturing and exporting.
The NGO, currently operating under the trade name, People?s Alternative Livelihood Foundation of Sorsogon, Inc. (PALFSI) is formerly a Church-based group under the Social Action Center (SAC) of the Diocese of Sorsogon.
It separated itself from the SAC following its registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a microfinance entity more than 10 years ago.
Formed in 1997 by Sister Adelia Oling of the Sister Servants of the Divine Healer (SSDH), PALFSI started by organizing poor families in Sorsogon barangays into small of neighborhood groups that it provided with seed money to start with feasible individual business ventures.
?I started with the identification of the real needs of the people in poor communities, capability-building on their part to address poverty and value formation. The task of alleviating poverty is so immense that it cannot be undertaken by an MFI on its own. It requires a network of partners that it can link with and rely on to make the mission working with the poor practicable and effective,? Oling told the PNA on Thursday.
For the past 12 years, she said PALFSI relied on these networks and established clear and defined linkages both in the international, national and regional levels.
At present, Oling is chief executive officer (CEO) of PALFSI that maintains as it financing partners the ICCO Credit, a private financing institution based in Europe; National Livelihood Development Corporation (NLDC); Responsible Investment Special Enterprise (RISE); Bank of the Philippine Island (BPI) and; People?s Credit And Finance Corporation, a government owned and control firm, among others.
?Through these partners, PALFSI as of the present already had a P140 million portfolio and the biggest bulk of this money is circulating among its 11,000 member-clients in forms of loans being used in SMEs they are operating,? she said.
One of them is Linda Grajo of Barangay Somal-ot, Casiguran, Sorsogon who started a backyard junkshop business with the P2,000-loan provided by PALFSI eight years ago.
Now, Grajo said, her businesses that already include hallow block making have already reached an aggregate value of about P500,000, employing six persons. She now owns a delivery truck.
Luz Escandor of Barangay Aguinaldo, Gubat town borrowed P5,000 from PALFSI for her community-based dried fish trading business 10 years ago. Under the organization?s guidance, her market now includes Metro Manila and the present value of her business had became around P700,000, she said.
PALFSI charges each borrower affordable and reasonable interest rates that are also used in interest payments for the money borrowed from its partner-financiers and as operational fund. Repayment period of the loan principal varies between one month and one year, Oling said.
?We provide loans to our member-clients an amount of loan ranging from P2,000 to P150,000 depending on their need for start-up capital or business expansion investments. With this system, we were able to do away with loan sharks? she explained.
Apart from helping poor families establish their own business ventures, Oling said PALFSI also provides housing loans for its client-members, scholarship to their children, health care and health insurance.
It is also involved in providing assistance to any qualified member of its clients? families to find employment abroad by way of coordinating with accredited placement agencies.
In maintaining linkages with its network and keeping its poverty alleviation undertakings always on the works, PALFSI has earned a high reputation that earned for it a seat in the Board of Trustees of the Microfinance Council of the Philippines (MCPI) as well as in the Bicol Microfinance Council (BMCI) as vice-chair of the board, Oling said.
PALFSI also sends delegates to the annual summer camp sponsored by the Alliance of Philippine Partners in Enterprise Development (APPEND), another network partner.
One of the services offered by PALFSI to its clients has also attracted the attention of international networks.
In February 2008, Oling and Dr. Clodualdo Leocadio Jr., a member of its board of directors, were participants to a seminar on Community Health Insurance in New Delhi, India organized by the ICCO-alliance (ICCO, Kerk in Actie and Prisma), Department of Access to Basic Services.
Ditas Ravanilla, PALFSI?s executive secretary said, the seminar brought together partner-organizations of the Alliance in jointly learning more on health insurance and its relation to ?social assistance?.
PALFSI is also adopting the Ladderized and Competency-based Curriculum, a concept that proves beneficial to both the MFI?s and its clients. It uses a dual-training system that enables a graduate of the program to acquire the minimum training required by a decent job, Ravanilla said.
From the perspective of the clients, the program gives them the option to send their children to a two-year program with immediate employment opportunities at the end of the course. Further studies can still be pursued while working, she added.
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