PSHF

Jovelyn  (34), on first impressions, is a modest and shy person but turns out to be easy to talk to as I discovered during the course of my interview with her when she came to the office to hand in her loan application. She and her husband Brayan (33) have three children, Zhaijian (10), Kylie Kurt (6) and Brian (3). Brayan is the main breadwinner of the family; he works for Mitsumi, an electronics manufacturing company in Cebu City and sends support to Jovelyn every month. As for Jovelyn, aside from looking after the children, she grows vegetables in the backyard of their home to help provide for the family’s food consumption.

Before Jovelyn got pregnant with her youngest, she worked as a cashier in a convenience store in the town center. She and Brayan had savings at that time which enabled them to buy a rice farm in 2015. However in 2018, Jovelyn had a Caesarean section when she gave birth to Brian and funds were needed for her hospital confinement. The couple did not have enough savings to pay the bill so they resorted to pawning their rice farm to a relative for 30,000 pesos with a contract of three years. The couple started saving up to redeem their pawned farm but then Brayan’s mother suffered a stroke and was hospitalized. They used their savings to pay for her hospitalization instead of for the redemption of their farm. Thankfully, Brayan’s mother recovered and an extension was granted to Jovelyn until January 2022 to redeem their rice farm. 

Now that the due date for redeeming the farm is imminent, Jovelyn is concerned about not having the funds in hand to redeem her farm. She was delighted when a cousin told her about the PSHF. Jovelyn, with her husband’s approval, is now applying for a loan to redeem their rice farm. Brayan, will set aside 5,000 pesos from his salary this month and the balance of 25,000 pesos ($500) will be covered by the loan from the PSHF.

As soon as the farm is redeemed, Jovelyn will hire three laborers to work on the farm to prepare the land for planting rice. She is hoping that her 3,000 sq. m. rice farm will yield 25 sacks of unmilled rice per twice yearly harvest. Jovelyn plans to set aside 10 sacks for home consumption and the rest will be sold. After deducting farming expenses, she hopes to make a net income of 10,000 pesos ($200) from each harvest. 

Jovelyn and Brayan are excited about redeeming their farm and we wish them every success with their rice cultivation.

Analyn T. Gallibot

PSHF Bohol

December 2021