Bernadeth

Bernadeth Cabusog is a 34 year old woman and a mother of two children ages 3 and 13 years old. Her eldest child attends grade 8. She has lived with Jennifer Timbal for thirteen years now. Her family lives in the village of Sudlon II in Cebu province. She and Jennifer have been working as farmers since they started living together.

Bernadeth plants crops on three different plots of land. She is lucky to have an area with abundant source of water nearby that let her continuously grow crops without a problem during dry season. They have been repeatedly growing crops such as lettuce, 'baguio' beans, cucumbers, eggplants and tomatoes. Due to their many successful harvest, they were able to build themselves a house to live in and send their first child to school. Her partner Jennifer has been funded once by Lendwithcare last November 2017 while Bernadeth has been funded last December 2018. Both their loans have helped them finance their farming expenses. As you can see in their business photos, they have made improvements in their farm by using plastic mulching, surround their farm with net fence, installed post harvest facility and others. They also attend seminars regarding good agricultural practices and applied their knowledge in their farm. Currently, the couple have lettuce, romaine lettuce, bok choy, chili pepper, chayote and spring onions all planted in their first farm. On her second farm, she planted mainly beans and currently have on going harvest while on her third farm she recently planted about 3,000 cucumber seedlings. To help them in the farm, she employs one regular worker and hires two extra workers if they needed more help. Her business continued during this difficult time although for almost two months her sales is low because traders are afraid to visit their place since someone is declared positive of COVID. Thankfully, now is going back to normal and many traders are entering their village again. Some of her produce will be bought by Lamac Multipurpose Co-operative as well.

Bernadeth has been a member of the co-operative since year 2014 and has repaid six loans. This month, she applied again for a larger loan in order to access more funds to finance her three farm land. She will use the loan to buy volumes of farm inputs and crop protection products to ensure quality harvest of her crops. She will also buy 1,200 pieces of bamboo splits and 8 rolls of straw. She also set aside funds intended for the salaries of her workers and other future expenses in the farm.

Bernadeth will keep running their business with the help of Jennifer and remain positive and strong despite facing challenges in their business. She promise to repay her loan over the period of twelve months and in lump sum repayment. Please see the repayment schedule below for more details.

‘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’.