Loreta A. is 57 years old and from the village of Casalatan, Cauayan City, Isabela. She is the group leader of a nine-member group loan offered by Kiva partner, ASKI. While each member of the group receives an individual loan, they are collectively responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members if someone is delinquent or defaults.

Loreta is married and has 11 adult-aged children. To make a living, she owns and operates a business venture in the food sector running a food stall. The main source of income for the business comes from selling food and vegetables in the local community. Loreta has been engaged in her business for over three years and earns approximately 3,500 PHP a month from these activities.

In 2006, Loreta joined ASKI to gain access to financial services to help improve her living situation and ability to engage in business activities. She is requesting a new loan of 9,000 PHP, which will be used to purchase additional products to sell. This loan will be her fourth from ASKI. She plans to use the additional revenue generated from the business to supplement her family's income.

About ASKI

ASKI is one of the most successful microfinance institutions in the Philippines. It has 25 branches covering the Central and Northeastern areas. Its clients are mostly farmers, fisherfolk and small entrepreneurs.

*Note: To maximize efficiency and reduce costs, this loan was posted using a template to automate the translation by Kiva. Given that manual translation of entrepreneur profiles is costly, Kiva created this template for our Field Partner to allow them to continue to post loans in English while providing quality and accurate information to Kiva lenders.