Marilou Macasaddug

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Marilou Macasaddug by Alalay sa Kaunlaran, Inc. (ASKI) in Philippines. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the 5 months of this loan, Alalay sa Kaunlaran, Inc. (ASKI) will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Marilou Macasaddug is a very busy mother of four, who at any given time has several business ventures going. She has been raising pigs since about 1980 and she says that this is her largest and most consistent source of revenue. She pays for daily expenses through the income from her store where she sells meals and small grocery items. With this store, known locally as a Sari Sari, she can earn up to 5,000 pesos ($100) gross per week. She also raises chickens, which she says is not as successful as the other two but still helps pay for some of her children’s allowances.

Her husband works on their 3 hectares rice farm. He has two harvests a year, and if it is a good season he can earn as much as 20,000 (over $400) a harvest. There have been many floods in the recent past however and they haven’t had a full harvest for almost two years.

Marilou has been an ASKI client for over 3 years and this is her 7th loan. In the past she has used loans for all of her and her husbands businesses as well as on fixing up their home. This loan was used on purchasing more items for her store, pig feed and insecticides for their farm. She said that all three have helped her family very much and she is grateful for the opportunity given to her.

All four of her children are doing well and she says that her number one goal in life is to provide for them until they have reached the highest level of education possible.

Some future projects that Marilou plans on undertaking are; increasing the size of her store, building more pigpens, and increasing the amount of chickens she raises. She says that all of these will require the help of ASKI and Kiva loans, as a lack of capital is the only thing stopping her from doing this right now.

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A Kiva Fellow working with Kiva’s field partner ASKI in the Philippines posted this journal.

About ASKI:

ASKI’s Vision:

A God-centered, model microfinance organization committed to serving the needy in Luzon through socio-economic development and holistic transformation.

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To read more about ASKI visit their partner profile page Here

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Marilou shared that the loan she received from the KIVA lenders really helped her in improving her general store business. She used most of her loan in purchasing different commodities like breads, soy sauce, canned products and other basic commodities. She also sells barbecue in the afternoon for additional income. She hopes that lenders will continue to support her business so that she may able to provide the educational needs of her children. She is now about to finish her loan and hoping for more business growth.