Vivien

Vivien Rivera is 56 years old. She is a married and lives with her husband Roy and their three children in the village called Pungtod, Oslob in Cebu province. All her children are married and been living separately. Roy is a seafarer but stopped working three years ago. Vivien on the other hand has been operating a general store in front of their house to help her husband in dealing with their living expenses.

For over 20 years now, Vivien has been managing her store where she sells wide variety of consumable goods such as rice, corn, canned goods, condiments, noodles, powdered drinks, biscuits, chips, cold drinks and a lot more of other items. She also offers animal feeds, school supplies and household cleaning materials. Her store is open daily from 5 in the morning until 6 in the evening. She was being helped by her children before while her husband was away working. Three years ago, Roy decided to stop working and now he is helping Vivien in the store. All their children are married and had their own home separately but due to the pandemic, her children and grandchildren are temporarily living with them to ensure their safety because her children lived in city where COVID-19 positive kept on increasing. At present her store is going well and she earn average daily sales of Philippines pesos 8,000 (around £126). She offers credit to some of her valued and trusted customers.

Vivien has been a member of our Lendwithcare partner called Lamac Multi-Purpose Cooperative since 2018. She already repaid three previous loans. Recently she applied for another loan in order for her to access more capital to restock her store with consumable goods and animal feeds. Three of her top selling items are rice, corn and animal feeds. She needs weekly capital of Philippines pesos 30,000 (around £471) or more depending on what products are left and what need to be topped up. Vivien hopes and pray to sustain what she is earning now and save for their future needs. She will repay the loan over the period of twelve months.

‘If you are lending, please be aware that due to the current COVID-19 pandemic your repayments could be at greater risk of delay or default’.