ASHI: Enabling mothers via microfinance
May is the month of Mothers – our caregivers, supporters, nurturers and providers. For all their sacrifices, it is proper for us to dedicate May to the no.1 woman in our life, our mothers. This is my pahabol Mothers’ Day tribute to all the nanays who keep the Philippine microfinance industry alive: Pagpupugay po, at pasasalamat!
I was recently informed by Mercedes (Mercy) Abad, president of Ahon sa Hirap, Inc. (ASHI) that they have a collection of 100 client stories in a book that was edited by UP Professor Luna Sicat-Cleto. The book tells the stories of many nanays — all of them from poor communities — and how they were able to improve their families’ lives. As Mercy explains:
“The book tells the story of Nanay Angie who used to live in a hut that had only two walls. When she became an ASHI member, she was able to open a small store while her husband peddled household items to neighboring communities. Their microenterprises helped them send their children to college. Three of their children are now working abroad. Nanay Angie realized her dream of owning a house that not only had four walls, but tiles! There is also Nanay Fely, who believes that educating her children is her greatest accomplishment. Two of her children are nurses, two are policemen and one is a lawyer. Nanay Marilyn won a Citibank Award for entrepreneurship — she managed a tricycle service with ex-detainees as drivers.”
Mercy also mentioned Nanay Cecille, who established herself as an event photographer in her community and Nanay Adora who was such a good dressmaker, she turned her community into a uniform factory!
Microfinance, here and abroad, wears a woman’s face. As in ASHI’s case, the majority of microfinance clients are women.
Grameen pioneer
ASHI is the acknowledged first official replicator of Grameen Bank in the country, although many microfinance institutions (MFIs), like the Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation (NWTF) and the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) also started as Grameen Bank replicators.
The late Prof. Generoso (Gengen) Octavio established ASHI in 1989 as an action-research project in the College of Development Economics, University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), with initial funding from the Asia Pacific Development Center (APDC) in Malaysia. Following the Grameen Bank approach of Prof. Muhammad Yunus of the Economics Department at Chittagong University in Bangladesh, ASHI provided poor women with direct access to non-collateralized loans to help augment their income.
ASHI replicated in toto the Grameen Bank methodology, including all the rituals (e.g., pledges of the members and the staff). When I was still with the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC), we also started a Grameen Bank Replication Program where we gathered a number of NGOs to attend a one-week training program after which they were provided technical and financial assistance. I remember that in one of our meetings with Dr. Yunus, he advised Gengen on how to mobilize more resources to support ASHI. Many start-up NGOs which were trained by ASHI and ACPC are now very successful MFIs.
Making a difference
From serving the neighboring communities of UPLB in Laguna, ASHI has expanded its operations to eight provinces (Laguna, Rizal, Quezon, Cavite, Antique, Aklan, Capiz and Iloilo) and Metro Manila. As of December 2022, it has 73 branches that serve 1,250 barangays in 142 municipalities and cities. Its outreach covers more than 115,000 families, majority residing in far-flung areas. Its total loan outstanding is P1.6 billion with a repayment rate of 95 percent.
ASHI’s vision is to be a community of servant leaders working with marginalized families for social transformation and prosperity. It offers financial products and services, like loans, savings and microinsurance. It also provides financial literacy, values formation, leadership and livelihood trainings, as well as medical/dental missions and community activities like tree planting, coastal/river clean-up, feeding programs, and mass weddings.
Supporting small farmers is important to ASHI. It started the ASHI Grameen Agricultural Program (AGAP) in 2009. It also partnered with the Jollibee Foundation to form the Farmer Entrepreneurship Program (FEP), registering farmer associations with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) so they can deliver fresh vegetables direct to stores, commissaries, supermarkets and institutional buyers.
ASHI is one of the founding members of the Microfinance Council of the Philippines (MCPI). Through the years, its training programs and services have been an exemplar for institutions that use the Grameen Bank methodology. But for Mercy, the greatest testament to ASHI’s success is the fact that one-third of their staff are all college graduates and children of clients. She proudly clarifies that half of their managers are their clients’ children.
Truly, ASHI enables mothers to make lives better for their families and communities. I pay tribute to them, with this lovely quote from poet Maya Angelou: “To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow.”
(Dr. Jaime Aristotle B. Alip is a poverty eradication advocate. He is the founder of the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development Mutually-Reinforcing Institutions (CARD MRI), a group of 23 organizations that provide social development services to eight million economically-disadvantaged Filipinos and insure more than 27 million nationwide.)
Source : https://mb.com.ph/2023/5/21/ashi-enabling-mothers-via-microfinance
