One More Day with Leonarda

A hog raiser and sari-sari store owner.

Recognized by CARD Bank, Inc. as one of its best Center Chiefs in the municipality of Borbon, Cebu, Leonarda Ablay has been a CARD client for more than 12 years. Her good client standing earned her the opportunity to participate in CARD’s Lakbay-Aral in Vigan and Tacloban.

Leonarda and her husband manage a small sari-sari store and a piggery. She has two children who are working abroad and providing financial assistance for their family.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, they earned at least Php3,000 in gross daily income from the sari-sari store and even up to Php6,000.00 on weekends. This amount eventually plummeted to Php1,000 daily following the series of local lockdowns that left many jobless and with no money to purchase everyday goods. Additionally, Leonarda’s hog-raising business was affected by the African Swine Fever (AFS) which was another disaster that affected the Philippine agriculture sector in 2020.

Despite these major economic shocks, Leonarda did not turn against her obligations as a borrower to CARD. She continued paying for her loan repayments during the pandemic and never used her savings with the bank. She used her personal money for repayment and temporarily sought greater assistance from her children abroad to make ends meet.

In March 2021, Leonarda was identified as one of the eligible borrowers of CARD under Project Revive MFI-Ph project funded by USAID and implemented by RestartME Foundation and Chemonics International. Through Revive MFI-Ph, she was able to loan Php30,000 and use it as additional capital to purchase more household items for her sari-sari store and to buy two new piglets complete with feeds. She hopes that the additional financing will help increase her sales and her family’s household income.

The new loan signified a new beginning for Leonora as her micro enterprises slowly recover from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. She also recognized the support of microfinance institutions to microentrepreneurs like her.

She said:

“Masaya ako na maging miyembro ng CARD at maging bahagi ng proyekto [Revive MFI-Ph] dahil malaking tulong ‘yung loan upang makabangon agad ang aming negosyo.”

(I am grateful to be a long-time member of CARD and to become part of the project [Revive MFI-Ph] because the loan will help my enterprises recover faster).