Group helping small entrepreneurs expands

MANILA, Philippines - Lucy Galvez and Liwayway Forte were ambulant vendors until they got a break to open their own businesses.

The 53-year-old Galvez said she struggled hard to make both ends meet at Rizal Park in Manila.

“Before, we were treated like ‘trash’ in Luneta,” she said in Filipino. “We worked hard, but police always went after us.”

Forte said she always borrowed money from “loan sharks,” which put her into deeper debt.

“All my earnings just went to paying my debts because of high interest rates,” she said.

Now, Galvez and Forte sell their goods in their own stalls.

Galvez found a group that gives loans to small businessmen at affordable rates. She borrowed money and sold more goods and her business grew.

She is now the president of Murphy Market Vendors and Retailers Association. Her group teaches fellow vendors how to handle money and get down to business.

Thanks to Ang Kasangga sa Kaunlaran Inc. (Ang Kasangga) that has provided financial assistance to hundreds of micro-entrepreneurs in the country since 2004.

 “Ang Kasangga bailed us out and lent us capital at low interest rates.” 

“Now, we have our own association to help one another in our financial needs,” says Liwayway. 

For the past years, Ang Kasangga has untiringly provided a micro-lending program for barangay-based entrepreneurs, a resource-building project, a savings plan for small businesses, and a livelihood for thousands of the unemployed.

Since its inception in 2004, the organization has grown from 45,000 to 260,000 members, most of whom are sari-sari store and food stalls owners, market vendors, jeepney, tricycle and bus drivers, operators and blind masseurs.

“We believe that our hardworking and honest micro-entrepreneurs are the new heroes of our times. The role they play is crucial in uplifting the country’s economy, and therefore, they deserve all our support,” said lawyer Norman Tayag, Ang Kasangga secretary general.

Small entrepreneurs also provide input of their work to the formal sector such as producing parts and supplies of goods, Tayag noted.

In 2006 alone, about 99.7 percent of the country’s businesses were classified as micro, small and medium enterprises. Of these, 92 percent fell under micro enterprises, which generated a total of 1,667,823 jobs or 35 percent of all jobs created by the MSME sector. 

Tayag explained that small entrepreneurs should be supported and protected by law because most of them, especially those in informal sector, have no access to bank loans, no formal training in business and management, and lack social assistance.

Recently, the group received an outpouring of support from various organizations of micro-entrepreneurs for its bid for sectoral representation in Congress in the May polls.

Lito Trinidad, Ang Kasangga spokesman, said for one the Visually Impaired Brotherhood for Excellent Services (VIBES) thanked the group.

The VIBES has been one of the hundreds beneficiaries of Ang Kasangga livelihood and lending program and succeeded in its effort to set up massage clinics in various parts of the country.

Vibes President Dante Tioson said Ang Kasangga deserves all the support it needs to continue the role they play in enlivening the country’s commerce and industry and helping small businesses.  

Through Kasangga’s help, the VIBES now has 40 massage clinics nationwide where its more than 500 members and their dependents work.

Other organizations supporting Ang Kasangga are Murphy Public Vendors and Retailers Association Inc. and Novaliches Deparo Tricycle Operators and Drivers Association in Quezon City , Rizal Park Vendors Association, Silang Transport Service and Development Cooperative, Silang Market Vendors Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Guimaras Food Services and Caterers Association, Gultley Women’s Association in La Trinidad, Benguet, Plaridel Federated SEA-K Association in Misamis Occidental, Cooperative for Senior Citizen Development Cooperative in Albay, and Pedicab for Cabusao Trisikad Business Association in Camarines Sur.