Mindanao Daily NEWS LIFESTYLE
Bringing Good News of Mindanao
Volume III, No. 060
web portal: www.mindanaodailynews.com
Wednesday
See2015 story on PageA12 12 July 29,
CARD-MRI: Lifting Filipinos out of poverty Story and Photos by MARK FRANCISCO, Lifestyle Editor
D
AVAO CITY – It might be an ageless cliché for a news headline but that’s what really CARD-MRI has been doing for the past three
decades – literally lifting Filipinos out of poverty and unarguably surpassing even what our government has failed to do. In December 1986, 15
rural development practitioners led by Dr. Jaime Aristotle Alip organized a social development foundation called the Center for Agriculture and Rural
A nurse checks the vitals of a pregnant mother during CARD’s Kalinga Kay Inay community health fair July 24 in Bankerohan Gym, Davao City.
Development, Inc. in San Pablo City, Laguna. By 1988, a training-focused community and livelihood assistance program for landless coconut workers marked the start of CARD Inc.’s operation. Almost a decade later, it transitioned into a bank and became CARD Bank. Just last June, CARD was able to secure a permit from the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) to operate a college in their headquarters in San Pablo City, Laguna called the CARDMRI Development Institute, offering a bachelor’s degree in Entrepreneurship specializing in Microfinance. Today, CARD-MRI has a total of 2.9 million successful members, each of them having their own micro-businesses, comprising of the following institutions: CARD Inc., CARD Bank, CARD Mutual Benefit Association Inc., CARD-MRI Development Institute, CARD-Business Development Service
Foundation, CARD-MRI Insurance Agency, CARD SME Bank, CARD MRI Information Technology Inc., BotiCARD Inc., Rizal Rural Bank (Taytay, Rizal), Inc., CARD Leasing and Finance Corporation, CARD Pioneer Microinsurance Inc. and RISE Financing Company. Members can choose from a wide variety of loans – Sikap Loan, Sikap Additional Loan, Sikap MSB Loan, Micro Agri Loan, Micro Housing Loan, Educational Loan, Health Loan and Mobile Phone/Cellphone Loan. For fish vendor Lucia Sol of Buhangin, Davao City, her initial P5,000 loan investment in 2006 has really paid off. From a mere market vendor, Lucia has now a Multicab unit roaming around gated villages in Davao City selling fish. About three kilometers seaside, 54-year-old Veneranda Bedis invested her Sikap Loan to CARD-MRI’s Likha ni Inay by weaving bedroom slippers, 3-in-1 wallets, back-
pack and shopping bag made of original batik. Likha ni Inay is a marketing program of CARD-MRI members that reaches out to a variety of artisans like weavers, capiz makers, jute workers, wood carvers, paper molders, leather workers and other artisans. Nationwide, their products range from fabrics to woodcrafts mixed together in a fashion line of casual wear, cocktail dresses, long gowns and modernized traditional clothing. Meanwhile, a total of 1,700 pregnant and lactating mothers who are CARD members availed of the Kalinga Kay Inay community health fair held last July 24 and 25 in two barangays in Davao City. According to CARD-MRI overall communications head Cleofe Figuracion, the Kalinga Kay Inay is intended to bring medical practitioners closer to the economically-challenged so they can avail quality services for free or at a reasonably low price.