Wednesday March 10 2010

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Empowerment comes in all shapes and sizes

(ROWENA PARAGADOS – Don’t underestimate this lady)

<img class=“alignleft size-full wp-image-153″ src=”http://www.micronomore.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/rowena-paragados.jpg” title=”Empowerment comes in all shapes and sizes – Rowena Paragados” alt=”Empowerment comes in all shapes and sizes – Rowena Paragados”>The forum held by Lamac Multi-Purpose Cooperative (LMPC) and SEEDFINANCE Corporation especially for MSME clients that June 2009 morning was well-attended. The atmosphere was formal, and to add to the formality, a very unassuming lady with a somehow imposing size, sits at a corner waiting for her turn to share her experiences and sign the agreements for the SME loan facility being offered at that time.

Looking more than a dozen years back, it was 1996 when this lady, Rowena Paragados became a member of LMPC. With her first availment of a PhP5,000.00 microfinance loan, she used this to pump-up her food peddling micro-venture then. The venture was the kind where she’s almost always ambulant, peddling her food ware where the market would be. The combination of perseverance and the little financial help worked wonders for the enterprise, and soon enough, Rowena was a small restaurant owner.

But that was not the summit. This lady went on to expand her food service. She went into livestock and succeeded there, too. After food, she knew another basic was shelter so she put up a small hardware and electrical supply store, gradually expanding this to become a full-blown construction hardware store. Heavy equipments came next. With the onset of online communications, she also set up an internet service.

At every step of the way, Rowena kept coming back to Lamac MPC for additional capital. The thousands went to tens of thousands, to hundreds of thousands, eventually to millions. In addition, Lamac MPC provided business development services (BDS) to support Rowena’s growing enterprises. The partnership between Rowena and LMPC continued to prosper. As of last count, Rowena’s line is at PhP2Million, and the June forum would further that relationship with the SME line LMPC and SEEDFINANCE were setting up at that time for growing and graduating micro- and SME-finance clients.

Posted on September 10, 2009
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