Jocelyn Apostolero

Jocelyn Apostolero is a business-minded and hardworking person who dreams of providing a better future for her family. She is 35 years old, married to Abner Apostolero, has four school-age children, and lives in the village of Purok 30, Barangay Taloc, Bago City, Negros Occidental.

Abner, her husband, earns a living by driving a jeepney. Jeepneys are the most popular means of public transportation in the Philippines. The jeepney is like a small bus except that the passenger entrance is at the back and the passengers sit side by side on benches that face each other from both sides of the jeep's body. As a jeepney driver, Abner's income is not fixed and totally depends on the number of passengers he transports for the day who pay him seven pesos for the first four kilometers. He has to pay the daily rent to the jeepney's owner as well as pay for the fuel.

Because of her dream in life, Jocelyn strives hard to reach it. Even though she had only a small capital, she opened a small general store and she plowed most of her initial income back into the business so that she could offer her customers a wider variety from her store. She joined NWTF-Project Dungganon in 2001 to have access to additional capital so that she could expand her business and increase her income potential.

As she gained more profits from her business, Jocelyn expanded her business activities by setting up a food-vending business in her store. She offered a wide variety of food products to her customers. She still continues the food-vending because she noticed that food profits were a bit higher than those of her other products.

Aside from the general store and the food-vending businesses, Jocelyn is also engaged in the direct-selling of various products. Most of her customers in this side business are also her customers in the general store and live within her community. She also has a computer station in her store for children to play computer games for a fee.

Jocelyn started the original business eleven years ago and now her four business activities provide her with an average monthly income of PHP 20,000 per month.

Jocelyn is very happy about the outcome of her hard work and sacrifices for her family because she was to able to meet her dream in life. For her previous, 18th, loan she was able to obtain the amount of Php 28,000 and it was used as additional capital for her four businesses and it was paid back to NWTF-Project Dungganon on time without any delays in payment. This contributes to the good performance of Jocelyn.

For her 19th loan, Jocelyn proposed Php 15,000 which will be used to purchase additional items for her general store. If you look at the photo, it shows Jocelyn in her general store. At her back is the computer station that is played by the children.


About NWTF:
In a world full of challenges, Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation, Inc. has answered the call of not just a few, but thousands of women. Through the alleviation program, these women have progressed from earning less than a measly $1 a day, to surpassing realities beyond their dreams. They have learned to live a life where they can finally be called honorable. This is Project Dungganon.

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