International NGO, CARE Australia is celebrating one year of supporting small business owners in the Philippines. 

The women’s aid organisation, who launched their microfinance platform Lendwithcare Australia last year, has now fully-funded 75 loans, totalling $127k, to small business owners, 4 out of 5 of whom are women, in the South-East Asian country. 

More than 1.4 billion people around the world currently do not have access to the financial services they need to improve their lives. Most are women living below the poverty line in rural areas who have little opportunity to overcome this financial barrier. 

Lendwithcare gives everyday Australians the opportunity to loan as little as $25 to ‘borrowers’, through CARE’s partner in the Philippines, FCCT, to invest in their business, and the loans are repaid once the business is up and running. Lenders can then choose to withdraw or re-invest in another venture to keep lending their support. The Lendwithcare website offers lenders the opportunity to read about the stories of small business owners and then select the businesses they would like to finance. 

One such borrower is mother of three, Jesha, from the island of Cebu, who received a loan to help with her recycling business. 

Jesha was a housewife, solely reliant on her husband’s income, with no plans to start a business, however this all changed 10 years ago. Her brother had stopped buying scraps for his income, and his customers came to Jesha instead, to purchase their scraps from them. At the time, Jesha had no money to do so, but decided to sell her jewelry for cash to buy the scraps, and to make up the rest of the money, Jesha requested a loan from CARE’s financial service provider in the Philippines, FCCT. Over the last decade, Jesha has steadily grown her business, and now employs 12 people from her local community.  Each consecutive loan she takes allows her to create more jobs and recycle more scraps in her local community.  She works Monday to Sunday and starts her days at 6am. 

Jesha said: ‘I feel proud because of my business of buying scraps and helping in the community through my employees. My dream is for my business to grow and flourish, so that I can have more employees and help the community with additional income or even their livelihood.’ 

Jesha is just one of the women-led businesses CARE Australia hopes to support in The Philippines coming years. 

‘Stories like Jesha’s demonstrate how a loan can not only change the life of the person themselves, but also those in their family and local community, through what we call the “multiplier effect’, says Jon Hiebert, Senior Manager – Microfinance Business Development at CARE Australia. 

‘Since launching Lendwithcare Australia last year, we’ve had great success with the platform, but we have big plans to grow further, and hope to fund over 300 more loans this financial year, through FCCT.’ 

Magdaleno Bargamento, CEO of FCCT, which has been operating as a financial service provider in Cebu for over 20 years now, says: ‘Microfinance loans are very important in the Philippines as many people cannot access banks. We’re pleased to be working with CARE Australia because we’ve already seen how we can expand and reach even more people in need of loans with their help.’ 

Jon continues: ‘Microloans give hope and can transform lives, especially the lives of women and children. 100% of your loan goes towards supporting borrowers to take control of their financial future.’ 

To find out more, or become a lender, visit : lendwithcare.org.au 

ENDS