Cerenia

Loan description:

Cerenia Lodovice is a 50 year old wife and mother of two. Her 21 year old child now works as a public school teacher while her 12 year old is currently studying at high school. She lives in the town of Pardo, which is in Cebu province. After saving a small amount of money, and with the help of her supportive husband, Dario, she decided to build a small convenience store in front of their house. This business has been running for 5 years now and continues to provide the community with useful commodities at an affordable price. She manages to regularly buy her products wholesale in the town centre and then offers these products at a small price to her community. All biscuits, crisps, snacks, canned goods, hygienic products and other items are either placed on wooden shelves or hung inside the shop. She also stores refreshments in a refrigerator to keep them chilled. She sells rice grains which she acquires in bulk and she retails on a per-kilo basis. She stays inside the shop throughout the day in order to serve her community since her business is one of the few general stores situated in the area. She earns an income of a 10 to 20% margin which she uses for the daily expenses of her family. Aside from this, Cerenia also manages a small water refilling station in their area. People have easy access to clean water at an affordable price and do not have to worry about health risks when drinking it. Cerenia never stops thinking of ways to further improve her business. In fact, she has requested a loan worth $1575 (60,000 Philippine pesos) from the microfinance organisation, Lamac Multi-Purpose Cooperative, in order to acquire more merchandise in bulk. She will also use part of the loan to maintain the good condition of her water-refilling machine. Any increase in her income will become beneficial for her future health needs and can even help her children with their families’ necessities. She is also looking forward to building better facilities for her store in the near future. Cerenia plans to repay this loan over ten months.