PSHF

Philippine Self-Help Foundation

ROSALIE 

After her husband Ricky walked out of her life in January last year, Rosalie (40) has managed to stay afloat by engaging in various small businesses such as food vending and buying and selling rice. Last year, upon the encouragement of a cousin, she started to buy and sell RTWs (ready-to-wear clothing) as well as undergarments. This has turned out to be a profitable undertaking. She would like to expand this project and has applied for a loan of 6,000 pesos from the PSHF.

Ricky (41) was a most caring husband and father. Three years ago, when he started to work in Manila as a waiter, he regularly sent money back to Rosalie. In December 2012, when she got sick and was hospitalised, he promptly came home to look after her. After the new year, when she had recovered, he went back to Manila. Little did Rosalie know that she would never see him again. They were married for 17 years. Several months after Ricky left, a woman called her one night claiming that she (the caller) was Ricky’s wife. Rosalie quietly explained that it couldn’t be because she was Ricky’s legal wife; she and Ricky were married in church in 1996 and had six children. 

Rosalie has got over her heartbreak and occupies herself now with her RTW business. Twice a month, she goes to Bacolod, the provincial capital, to buy stocks such as T-shirts, denim jeans, leggings, undergarments for boys, girls, and children, and sheets. From Bacolod, she takes her stocks to the neighbouring barangay (village) of Lina-on in Cauayan where she has a cousin who helps her dispose about 70 per cent of her goods; the remaining 30 per cent, she takes home with her to Buclao and sells these house to house. Presently she has about 4,000 pesos in capital which gives her a net income of 2,400 pesos a month after deducting her fares and her cousin’s percentage from her own sales.

School has recently opened and Rosalie has been receiving orders for school uniforms and shoes in addition to her regular line of goods. She has no funds to expand her RTW business and so has applied for a loan of 6,000 pesos from the PSHF. With a bigger capital, she believes that her monthly income can go up from 2,400 pesos to 5,000 pesos (US$110) a month. Her earnings will enable her to meet the schooling expenses of her four children, Johann Rizza (15), Joanne Rose (13), Jeannie Rose (10), and Justine Rose (8), all doing well in school. The youngest Jhecyn Mae (3), nicknamed Bhabes, is not yet in school. The eldest and the only boy in the family, John Raymund (17) is being sent to a vocational school by Rosalie’s sister who took pity on Rosalie after Ricky left her.

Bernadette G. Togado
PSHF Negros Occidental-South
June 2014

Rosalie with her daughter Jeannie Rose