Marissa

Marissa Lumontad is 44 years old and married with two children. Her eldest is already married and living separately while her second child is about to attend college this coming June. They all live in the village of Lamac which is in the town of Pinamungajan in Cebu province. Marissa managed a school canteen for nine years and stopped the business in 2017. She and her husband Jose now runs a general store outside a local secondary school where they are earning daily to support their household needs.

Marissa basically sells items like biscuits, sweets, chips, canned goods, cold drinks, noodles, powdered drinks, eggs, detergents, hygienic products, diapers, cosmetics and school supplies. She also sell rice, corn, animal feeds, over the counter drugs, fluorescent lamps and hair accessories. In front she also have one unit of water vending machine. She manages the store daily from 6 in the morning until 9 in the evening. Her husband and child also helps in running the store especially when Marissa is out to purchase more items to sell. She is not paying rent for she owned the land where her store is built. She is earning an average daily sales of 2,000 pesos (around £29).

Since her store is near a local secondary school, Marissa wanted to have another business which is room rental. Many teachers and students are looking for rooms to rent. She plan to build a second floor on top of her store.

To access more funds to build rooms, Marissa applied for another larger loan the MFI, Lamac Multi-Purpose Cooperative and repay the loan over the period of 48 months. She has been a member since 1998 and repaid several loans to the cooperative. Last week of March she will hire two workers to construct the rooms. The funds will cover the cost of the construction materials needed like sand and gravel, cements, steel bars and more. She will also use the loan to pay his two workers.

Marissa hopes her business will continue to grow for major part of their household expenses are from the income she's earning in the store. She also hope her new business will progress.