About us

Our History

Coming from the poorer sectors of Philippine society, these micro-entrepreneurs are highly at risk to all forms of shocks that would dramatically result in a disruption in their economic activities and consequently their long and difficult struggle to get out of poverty. With assets lost to both natural and man-made disasters, MFI clients’ ability to save, pay loans and increased demands for loan recovery measures all converge to put the MFIs’ loan portfolio liquidity at risk. 

This vulnerability among the poor and the MFIs that assist them was vividly demonstrated following the massive devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan in the Visayas region on November 3, 2013.  In a post disaster assessment conducted by the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) with the 4 largest MFIs in the country operating in the Visayas (namely CARD-MRI, ASA Philippines Foundation, Taytay sa Kauswagan Inc, Negros Women of Tomorrow Foundation), it was estimated then that among the 4 of them, about 500,000 micro-entrepreneur clients were affected.  With an average loan size of Php10,000/client they projected a portfolio at risk amount of Php 5 billion.

In response to this, the MFIs in partnership with the PBSP, conceived the Micro‐enterprise Disaster Assistance Fund for Resiliency (MIDAS Fund) to enable them to respond rapidly to the post Typhoon Haiyan credit needs and livelihood recovery. Through a USD4 million grant from USAID, PBSP was able to refinance a part of the loan portfolios of the 4 MFIs.  With the additional liquidity cushion, the 4 MFIs were able to serve 30,000 micro-entrepreneurs by providing them a disaster recovery loan with softer terms, enabling them to restart their livelihood while their pre-disaster loans were placed under a moratorium status.  The idea of providing a softer loan term instead of an outright grant was conceived by the MFIs since they wanted to maintain their client’s empowered mindset of being professional entrepreneurs who honor their commitments for the benefit of the whole.

As it turned out 100% of the loans released were repaid by the clients to the MFIs, who in turn repaid their loans to PBSP.  In line with its commitment with USAID, these funds were then set aside by PBSP and together with 4 founding MFIs spun off the USAID-MIDAS project to incorporate a new wholesale microfinance non-stock, non-profit organization called, Restart Micro-Enterprise Inc (RestartME) in August 25, 2016.  

Since then, RestartME has been using these funds plus annual donations from its partner MFIs, to provide similar calamity assistance loans through its founding member MFIs and smaller MFIs whose portfolios have been compromised by typhoons, volcanic eruptions, the ISIS backed siege in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur, Mindanao, and most recently, the Covid-19 pandemic.