Gregoria

Loan description:

Gregoria Alarcon is a 62 year old woman who is married with four adult children. Her children are aged 40, 38, 36 and 33. All of them have their own families and jobs. Gregoria is a widow, but she lives with her children in the town of Palayan, in Nueva Ecija province. In order to provide a supplementary income, Gregoria opened a grocery store which she has now been running for 25 years. She mainly offers consumable products including biscuits, bread, crisps and refreshments. Her store is made from concrete walls and a window covered with metal screens. She displays her products inside the store and arranges them in a way that customers can easily choose the items they want. She usually applies a 10% mark-up on her retail products. She gets her products in the town centre which is three kilometres away with the help of some of her children and grandchildren. Gregoria has been an active member of the microfinance organisation, Alalay sa Kaunlaran, for 8 years and has already repaid several microloans. The loan she has requested this time is $263 and repayable over six months. She will use the loan to buy merchandise in larger volumes, especially biscuits and canned goods. Gregoria is happy to still serve her community in spite of her age. She wishes to save for her family’s health needs.