51-year old Demetria Mejia from Dagupan, a wife, a mother of five children, was once a baranggay health worker. With little compensation she receives monthly, she has decided to put up a small sari-sari store and applied a loan in KASAPI Microfinance. She currently has 24 cycles with P19,000 savings.  

“Maliit lang sinasahod ko n’on sa center bilang health worker tapos ang asawa ko naman hindi rin ganoon kalaki ang sweldo n’ong nagtatrabaho pa siya, kaya hirap din kaming pagkasyahin ang sweldo namin sa aming pang-araw araw na gastusin”. Their 5 children are all studying in which they need a stable source of income to provide their daily needs in school. She has decided to put a sari-sari store to get an enough resource for her children’s needs.

With her willpower to achieve sustainable income, she wisely handles her finances and sees to it that there is equally-sufficient budget for her business and her family’s needs. “Tamang diskarte ang kailangan para umangat ang buhay.”, says Mrs. Mejia. In her second cycle, she was able to maintain her business with the starting capital. She was able to put up a dirty kitchen for their house from the returns of her business. In the following cycles, she utilized the profit for expanding her business and purchased a refrigerator in storing frozen good, soft drinks, and additional grocery items and also bought set of computers for PisoNet. As her business progresses, she always looks back to her humble beginnings and is always open-handed to her neighbors who are in need.

She has dreamed to give her family a sustainable and comfortable living and now, little by little, she is turning this dream into reality. Now, she is continuously achieving her aspirations for her family and small business with the assistance of KASAPI. “Malaking bagay ang KASAPI para sa kinabukasan ng aming pamilya. Sa sipag, tiyaga, diskarte, at kanilang tulong, unti-unting guminhawa ang aming buhay.” added Mrs. Mejia.