NDB joins first microfinance industry-wide Lakbay Aral (Part 1)

Negros Daily Bulletin joined seven other media outlets from all over the country in the first microfinance industry-wide Lakbay Aral in Bicol Region last March 20-22.

Sponsored by CARD MRI, the media exposure tour featured interactions with clients- beneficiaries and programs of CARD MRI and also with those of two other microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the Bicol Region.

CARD MRI, which stands for the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development – Mutually Reinforcing Institutions, is one of the leading and pioneer micro-finance social enterprises in the country. Its avowed business is poverty alleviation thru “microfinance and community-based social development undertakings that improves the quality of life of socially-and-economically challenged women and families”.

Starting out in San Pablo City, Laguna as just another idealistic social development organization which mushroomed during the post-EDSA euphoria in 1986, CARD dreamed of establishing a bank owned and managed by poor landless coconut farmers.

The group of 15 rural development workers led by Dr. Jaime Aristotle B. Alip conducted trainings and implemented livelihood projects to rectify the social injustices in their mainly agricultural part of the country.

However, they soon realized that their interventions fell short of their expectations of sustainability among their beneficiaries, and the group was compelled to revert to the drawing board.

“We all understood that moving out from the claws of poverty takes more than just training and livelihood assistance. We realized that people need a way to build assets. With assets, people can build capital, and it is only through the ownership and control of capital that a variety of forms of empowerment can emerge,” said Dr. Alip.

Asset, then, is the key in building capital. In the world of finance, an asset can be tangible, such as land, buildings, vehicles, appliances, gadgets and the like, or an asset can be intangible, such as a company’s goodwill, brand recognition or intellectual property.

In a broader sense, an asset is anything useful or valuable that a person owns or controls. In the micro or personal level, an income, or simply the capability to earn one, is an asset. So are a person’s time, determination, foresight and fortitude.

By educating people to recognize, save, strengthen and develop their assets, CARD enables their beneficiaries-partners to build capital. With further enlightenment on the judicious use of that capital thru business or high-yield, secure savings, people can then empower themselves economically, socially and politically, and thus attain independence.

CARD MRI, invigorated by its new-found focus, plowed on with its dream. Almost four decades later (as of January 2023), CARD serves 8.6 million clients, members and beneficiaries thru its almost 3,500 offices, branches, banks, stores, clinics, pharmacies and partners all over the country, as well as in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia.

Its outstanding loans are pegged at P36.1 billion, with savings / capital build-up of P32 billion and a loan repayment rate of 98.71%. CARD Mutual Benefit Association, the microinsurance provider for CARD MRI clients, has paid almost P17.5 billion to its beneficiaries.

It engages 35,546 employees, coordinators, supervisors, agents and health providers in its entire operations, which has now expanded into three banks, three microinsurance companies offering life and non-life insurances, three financing companies, three IT companies, an educational institution, publishing house, tour outfit, three client marketing support companies, two support services and a pharmacy.

From what could have been dismissed as a quixotic dream in 1986, CARD MRI has metamorphosed into a multi-awarded world-class, comprehensive microfinance social enterprise with numerous independent, yet mutually reinforcing pillars geared towards the holistic empowerment of its partners-beneficiaries.* (Butch Bacaoco)