Savings, Shoes, and Stewardship: Microfinance with Education in the Philippines
“I breathe and exhale savings – it’s my way of life.” - Malu Garcia, Chalmers-Certified Microfinance with Education Trainer
Malu with her husband Benjie Garcia
This is Part II in the Chalmers Center's ongoing series of interviews of our trainers about their work around the world. Most of these interviews focus on how the certified trainers from Chalmers' Microfinance with Education licensing program address the multifaceted aspects of poverty in unique ways. For instance, Part I focused on how URWEGO, a microfinance institution in Rwanda, was using Chalmers' biblically-based curricula to provide small business training and household financial education to its low-income borrowers. Much like that interview with Chalmers-certified trainer Daniel Ryumugabe, in this month's Mandate we catch up with another long time friend and trainer in the Philippines, Malu Garcia. Malu is a remarkable woman in so many respects. And her experiences encountering the complexities of poverty and working through churches to address those complexities are no less remarkable. If nothing else, Malu's training in the Philippines serves as an important reminder that cannot be said enough - reconciliation is needed everywhere, in all aspects of our lives.
Chalmers: Greetings, Malu!
Malu: Hi, it's always so nice to hear your voice.
Chalmers: You've been a trainer with the Chalmers Center for 11 years now. You've conducted training events using Chalmers' Microfinance with Education curriculum in Kenya, Rwanda, Congo, Haiti, India, Philippines, and China, just to name a few. Since you're now home for the holidays in the Philippines, let's focus our conversation there. I understand that you're currently in a partnership with HOPE International and the Center for Community Transformation (CCT), which is a Filipino organization that believes development strategies are best achieved by enriching the spirituality of a person. I hear that through this partnership in the past year you've started savings and credit associations in both the remote fishing villages in nearby Los Baños as well as among the indigenous B'Laan people of the conflicted Southern Mindanao region. Describe for us what's happening in these very different places.
Malu: Through our church's outreach and work in typhoon recovery over the past five years we've created a foundation of trust among the nearby Barangay (local government) in Los Baños where these fishing villages are. They've respected our relief work during these disasters as well as our rehabilitation efforts for the community post-disaster. Our work with these people over time really got their government to trust us. Since the help was coming from within, they knew we weren't going anywhere. So when we decided to train some of these people in Microfinance with Education, the local government was very excited and also wanted to be a part of supporting them to start savings and credit associations.
Chalmers: That's excellent that your church's relief and rehabilitation work among these people in times of disasters garnered you enough respect from their local government that they wanted to partner with you in starting Chalmers' savings and credit associations. What a great example for a church to set.
Malu: Yes. There is so much power in being there for people long after the disasters fade, because the need is never truly gone. I think they really noticed our dedication in working with these people through the bad and the good and saw something different.
Chalmers: It's great to hear such different groups working together in this way. Describe the savings and credit groups that have been set up there.
Malu: They've completed orientation along with the leaders of their villages and gatekeepers of their communities. Since we believe it's important to start small, we've trained three villages of 100 fishermen a piece to start the actual savings portion of these groups in January. There are hundreds of fishing villages along the coast of Laguna Lake, so the impact could be quite large as the people learn that they can save.
Chalmers: That's great to hear. We look forward to seeing how they progress over this next year. Moving onto the B'laan people. I'm not very familiar with them. Can you describe them and their situation to us?
Malu: The B'laan people live in the southern portion of the Philippines on Mindanao Island. It's called the Land of Promise and is the only area of the Philippines with a significant Muslim presence. Essentially, the B'Laan people have lived and suffered in a war zone that is the second longest standing conflict in the history of the world. Like most indigenous populations, the B'Laan who live there are the lowest group in the country in terms of social strata. They have no self-esteem, and little education. They are a small group of people who were born believing they are worth nothing. These people feel so utterly inferior that when you speak to them they will not even look at you. Using Chalmers' materials, I trained a number of people at CCT to promote savings and credit groups there. I just visited them two weeks ago, and a lady stood up and looked at us and said, "You know, I'm already 54 years old, and it's only now that I'm able to save. Now I am no longer scared to look at the future because I have some savings for myself."
Chalmers: Amazing. Praise God!
Malu: Now she can help her daughter go to school. This is hugely empowering for these people to be able to give their kids an education, something that's historically always been beyond their grasp. They're proud that they have some money, and they're also proud they're being recognized within their larger community.
Chalmers: How do you mean?
Malu: These people have been continuously displaced throughout history, but were recently driven out of their forest dwellings because the government sold their land to a private investor and forced them out. However, eventually CCT was actually able to purchase that land and bring the B'Laan tribe back to inhabit it. They're currently no longer beholden to the government's whims and are in a position to help themselves. They're now able to live, meet, and save in community together. Together, with CCT and my church, they're building a community center that celebrates their culture, their music, and their values. So this grouped with the empowerment they have received through Microfinance with Education is beginning to make them proud of who they are. They are also starting to see each other in a new light. This has grown their identity instead of hiding it. So central to this change of image is how much our curriculum reinforces the biblical truths that they are created in the image of God, with dignity and worth and the God-given ability to sustain themselves and their families through their own savings and work. Another elderly lady recently describing her joy to me said, "None of this would be possible if God had not come and redeemed us. "You can truly see them becoming reconciled with God, themselves, and each other.
Chalmers: That's remarkable!
Malu: The most incredible aspect of this though are the B'Laan children. We've started savings and credit groups among the children, too. They are such a blessing to hear from because they now say they are able to buy a toy for Christmas. This is unheard of in their tribe. These children do not have toys. They are so proud, that through their own savings, they are able to buy the very first toy they've ever had - themselves! Imagine buying the only toy you've ever had yourself at 7 years old.
“...the empowerment they have received through Microfinance with Education is beginning to make them proud of who they are.”
Chalmers: I cannot imagine that! How inspiring. It will be so interesting to see how that generation fares compared to their parents and then the generations following them, having been exposed to these simple, savings-led economic development strategies at such a young age.
Malu: On a larger scale, in South Luzon I've also trained 42 facilitators at CCT using our approach to Microfinance with Education. These facilitators have gone on to train out-of-school youth to start their own savings and credit associations. The youth are using a portion of their savings for their small shoe shining business. It has been through savings and small business skills acquired in the education component of our Microfinance with Education program that these street kids have been able to actually buy themselves a pair of shoes. They didn't have shoes and now they have their own through saving their own money. We've started many savings and credit groups among women there as well. CCT has a training institute in South Luzon that has a dormitory. Well, the women in some of these groups have taken their savings, bought laundry products, approached CCT, and entered into contracts with them to become their dorm's laundry service providers. So, these women have begun to generate their own income through learning to save.
Chalmers: Street kids in savings groups with a shoe shining business enables them to buy shoes for themselves? Women in these savings and credit groups become service providers? This is amazing. I love the entrepreneurial spirit that savings and credit groups seem to have instilled there. And it's remarkable that CCT has provided a platform for these group members to support themselves through their own work. It's always inspiring to hear instances of savings and credit groups spurring entrepreneurship. That was one of our larger hopes in developing the Microfinance with Education program: to add critical lessons in small business development and home finances to savings and credit groups, so that savers can learn principles of entrepreneurship and daily stewardship principles.
Malu: Yes, there are now two savings and credit groups of laundry women. There is also another savings and credit group whose members have started massage businesses in the tourist area near the volcano. It's very encouraging to see these gaps being bridged through the Microfinance with Education training.
Chalmers: Wow, that is so good to hear. What's up next for you in the Philippines?
Malu: The next Chalmers' training we're doing is with drivers of pedicabs and bike taxis in this same area.
Chalmers: That sounds exciting. I love how universally applicable saving is to everyone, no matter where you live or what you do. It's so encouraging to hear you talk about how even amidst the complexity of poverty, people are encountering their own dignity and claiming that it comes from God.
Malu: Yes. I continue to be thankful to the Lord for all He's done and for all He's doing. Only true restoration can come to any of us through Him.
Chalmers: Thanks so much for your time, Malu.
Malu: My pleasure. Give my blessings to the entire Chalmers family.
(Interview by Mark Bowers & Ben Thomas)
Mrs. Garcia is a graduate of the University of the Philippines where she finished her B.S. in Community Development and M.A. in Professional Studies, majoring in Development Communication. Mrs. Garcia works with Hope International as the Community Development and Savings-led Program Advisor. She provides training, technical assistance and advice to the various Savings-Led Programs of HOPE International. Mrs. Garcia is also a Certified Microfinance with Education Trainer for the Chalmers Center and has extensive experience in field-testing Chalmers Center training materials in the Philippines. Using Chalmers curriculum, she started the PEAR Savings and Credit Association (SCA) Program of HOPE International and the Anglican Church of Rwanda where over 200 church leaders were trained to promote savings and credit groups. Malu is a wife and mother of three.
