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Cataag Compound, San Joaquin St., Ormoc City, Leyte, Philippines 6541
Tels. 63-053-255-3516 & 63-053-560-6441; Email: [email protected]
Small Vendors' Credit Project
When Pagtinabangay Foundation started its operations, it began with the small fish, vegetables and fruit vendors of the city. With money its founders raised amounting to only P4,000, the lending scheme started in all earnestness, with only four vendors benefitting. The rest of the 10 members were supposed to get their turn to borrow upon payment of the loan by the original borrowers.
With only a minimal interest imposed, the small amount nonethless grew. This credit scheme became the entry point for the discussion of other poverty issues. During this time, PFI could not afford to rent an office space yet.
Looking for donors
In the meantime, the volunteers of PFI started to write to funding partners abroad and, with a single old portable Olympia typewriter, they wrote exactly 40 proposals. Out of these 40 FAs, only the Philippine German Development Foundation opened its doors, offering to help the vendors PFI had organized. Philgerfund extended P100,000 in grant.
Membership jumped from less than 20 to 60, with practically all of them getting some loans to serve as capital for their commodities. There were now more fruit, vegetable and fish vendors in the group. This was until the great flood of November 1991 caused the vendors to lose their commodities. Some actually lost their lives. Philgerfund would return to extend fresh capital inputs to the affected vendors.
After the flood
After the flood in early 1992, Philgerfund came back to inspect the damage brought about by the flood and decided to extend another grant to the beleaguered vendors. The old loans were written off. But the economy was now different. Many farmers lost their sources of income after their fields were devasted. The total buying capacity of the population had dwindled.
At the marketplace, sales went down. Vendors complained that their commodities rotted for lack of buyers. Moreover, new faces cropped up at the market to compete with the old faces. This was not good for the old vendors. The project also suffered because of these factors. Payments became more and more difficult to collect. For a number of years, many of the vendors could not pay.
With more farmers and fisherfolk selling their own products in the market, it became more and more difficult for the project beneficiaries to pay their loans. Moreover, a lot of them were forced by circumstances of poverty to resort to other sources of funds. Collectiion became a problem. Finally, we had to decide to write off the vendors' loan to allow their businesses to grow in the open market conditions.
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