After only 2 day s back at work we were fortunate to be granted another day off to celebrate the end of Ramadan and Eid'l-Fitr. Instead of remaining in Manila, I took the opportunity to head down to Iloilo on Panay island and visit another AYAD, Sarah. Unfortunately Neil was not able to enjoy the Filipino public holiday, so he was left in Manila for the weekend.

It was a super early flight down to Iloilo, so after Sarah kindly picked me up from the airport we headed to meet up with some Australians and have some breakfast. The Australians who were in Iloilo were related to Sarah's work - there was the CEO and Chair of the Australian branch of Opportunity International (OI), one of the vice-Chairs, and two couples who were interested in the work of Opportunity International and its partners as potential investors. We met up with them at their hotel, and after a quick trip to the local market we met with the local OI partners with whom Sarah is working with, Taytay Sa Kauswagan Inc. (TSKI). TSKI is essentially a micro-finance NGO that works with the poor in providing them with credit to build or expand their micro-businesses. It's modeled on the successful Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Their programs also include micro-insurance and they are recently introducing micro-health insurance for members.

The main purpose of the trip was for the launch of a new program to target the poor who have not had the skills, credit or capacity to established micro-credit enterprises on their own. But in the morning we were fortunate to visit a few of the established community groups who had benefited from the micro-finance programs of TSKI. And I was happy to tag along to learn more about it all.

The first community we went to was a little way from the main road through one village and across some rice fields. This community was using their loans primarily to expand their business in growing and selling vegetables. After viewing some of their gardens we talked with the group about the changes that have occurred since the micro-finance program began. Most of them cited improvements in their income and the ability to now send their children to school as important outcomes. When asked about what kind of alternatives they had in accessing capital they mentioned the 5-6 scheme where in the morning they were able to borrow 5 pesos, but had to return 6 at the end of the day. We were pretty shocked at this!! We then headed out to a second community where the micro-finance groups was composed totally of women. Many of them shared their stories with us and it was really interesting to hear the changes that they had gone through. They told of the importance of micro-insurance - one of the woman's husband had recently died from pneumonia and she was left supporting 4 r 5 children. With the money that she received form the insurance (which is part of the lending program) she was able to bury her husband and put the rest of the money in the bank. For people here with little money, the death of a major bread winner not only decreases the income of the family, but often puts many people into spiraling debt due to funeral costs.