Timotea

Timotea Firmeza, 59 year old is married and she has 4 adult children. Her husband passed away 2 years ago due to vehicular accident. Her family lives in the village of Poog which is in Toledo city in Cebu province. She lives with her is her two unmarried children, their partners and 8 grandchildren. Timotea used to work as a house caretaker for many years in Cebu city. Her children ran the business selling clothes, bags, umbrellas, towels etc when she went to work.

Timotea manages her business now. All the stocks are displayed at her house. Her business went down because it was not properly managed by her children before. When she stopped working ten years ago, she revived the business and immediately took over. Timotea sells clothes, bags, umbrella, towel, bedding, rags, slipper, sandals, shoes, window and shower curtains and rice. All of her products are purchased in credit. She have a total of fifty regular customers who keep on purchasing her products. Her customer pays her on a monthly and semi-monthly basis. Due to the payment arrangements she made with her customers Timotea needs larger funds to finance her business.

Timotea has been a pioneering member of the MFI, Lamac Multi-Purpose Cooperative in Lutopan branch office. For the past 14 years of being a member she has availed and repaid several loans that helped her to finance her business and also deal with other needs of the family like building a decent house for them to live in.

Recently, she requested another larger loan in order to finance her business. She buys her products once a month and pays her suppliers in cash in order to avail discounts. All of her products are bought in Cebu city since many wholesaler companies are there. Timotea hopes to sustain what she is earning in the business in order for her to provide the needs of her dependents. Her children who are living with her are also helping their mother in dealing with their household finances. Timotea promise to repay the loan over the period of 12 months.