A loan of $275 helped to purchase food ingredients for a food production business.

The Mercy Foundation helped fund a microloan for Charlene, a food production entrepreneur from the Philippines.

Here is Charlene’s Story

Charlene is an entrepreneur who lives in Daan Bantayan, Cebu, Philippines. She is currently married, and for the past one year, she has been operating a food production business. Now that she has the hang of doing it well, she is ready for expansion so that she is able to earn more income. Her belief is that by doing so, she will be able to provide for her family better so that they can have a more secure future. She wants to source a loan from the Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation (NWTF).

She decided to get in touch with the organization for financial assistance to help her build up her business. She applied for a loan of 12,000 PHP. With this money available, she will be able to purchase more fish, vegetables, spices, meat and so on so that she can build up her food production business.

The loan for Charlene’s loan was locally administered by the NWTF, a non-governmental organization and Kiva partner. This organization has an excellent goal and that is to make sure that the low income families of the province of Negros Occidental become financially self-reliant. They are able to facilitate loans to meet the needs of a host of different micro-entrepreneurs including additional services like life insurance policies, livelihood workshops, dental and medical missions, and microfinance services.

It is by making use of the Kiva lending platform and the NWTF, that the Mercy Foundation was able to fully fund Charlene’s loan. All these organisationss have the same goal so when they work together as Kiva, Mercy Foundation and the NWTF, there are changes the lives of people in the Philippines by helping them escape the cycle of poverty.

How these orgnisations accomplish this is quite simple. Kiva brings philanthropic organizations like the Mercy Foundation, with others like the NWTF which is tasked with identifying entrepreneurs on the ground who are in need of funding.

Kiva is a lending platform that anyone can access. Should you choose to make a change of people in the lives of people around the globe in the same way as Mercy Foundation, you should visit www.kiva.org. There are hundreds of people waiting for your help.

Notes
1. This article is based on https://www.kiva.org/lend/826509

Mercy Foundation recycles donations of underutilized real estate to finance microloans granted to poverty-stricken families. The foundation’s goal is to promote a sustainable solution to poverty, and extols their beneficiaries’ financial independence in its work. For more updates on its projects, visit this website.