Microfinance Focus, May 30, 2011: Rolando B. Victoria, 56 has been with the ASKI, a non-government organization based in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija committed to the promotion and development of micro and small-to-medium enterprises and the delivery of social services for the last 24 years.
Mr. Victoria is one of the pillars of ASKI. The organization started its operation on March 23, 1987. He is a graduate of BS Accountancy at the Araullo Lyceum (now University) and a certified public accountant.
In 2004, ASKI extended its operation in the Northern part of the Philippines as part of its expansion program to reach and help more Filipinos and give them the opportunity to be productive.
The ASKI business units which consist of the ASKI microfinance, mutual benefit association, foundation, marketing cooperative, and the skills and knowledge institute contribute to the success of the organization’s activities.
Mr. Victoria is leading the 38 branches of ASKI in Central and Northern part of the Philippines. Managing more than 500 employees in a relax manner is one of his positive traits. He always poses a challenge to the employees to dream big dreams and take advantage of every opportunity to establish partnership or network with other organizations working on the same field.
In a short interview, Mr. Victoriashares how ASKI extended its programs and services especially in helping the OFWs in Singapore as the pilot country:-
Below is an excerpt of the interview with Mr. Victoria.
There are many issues when it comes to migration of Filipinos. On the part of ASKI, how do you help the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) as a non-government organization especially now that you have ASKI Global Ltd?
Rolando B. Victoria (RBV): There is a close coordination with the different government agencies. In Singapore- our pilot country for overseas Filipino workers program, we have a close partnership with the Philippine Embassy, different NGOs, church organizations in Singapore and the National University of Singapore. In the Philippines, we are continuously doing networking with different government agencies concerned on overseas Filipino.
How do you link the ASKI activities to poverty reduction program?
RBV: We are one of the leading countries in terms of remittances of the overseas Filipino workers. Many OFWs in different countries which we labeled as the new heroes send money to their families in the Philippines. However, one of the issues that we want to address is how do the recipients spend these money in a productive way?
We believe that the programs of ASKI to OFWs can be linked to poverty reduction because we are doing financial education- we teach them the value of money, the importance of savings and even the micro insurance. We are doing these to help them decided on how they can best use the remittances coming from their families abroad for them to be productive.
We want the people to know that for you to be out of poverty, you have to be productive. On our part, we offer free trainings on entrepreneurship. We identify qualified OFWs through our linkage with ASKI Global. We are also doing trainings on values formation. We experience political crisis, financial crisis but I believe the worst is there is a crisis on values. We want to bring it back through the values transformation that we give to our clients as well as the non-clients.
We are not only catering to the needs of our clients but the whole community. We also want our clients encourage other people to do volunteer works in our advocacies, in providing scholarship programs to the needy but deserving students, to help in our activities towards environmental protection and many more.
This is bringing change. Part of our advocacy is to help the people especially the women that instead of engaging themselves into gossips they can be productive. The OFWs in Singapore who finished the course were already volunteers spreading the good works of ASKI.
Are there also programs that focus on social security? How many OFWs in Singapore have joined the program?
RBV: The OFWs are covered by the Philippine Social Security System (SSS). We also encourage them to be part of the Philippine Health Insurance program. If they are client of ASKI, we encourage them to be a member of the micro-insurance.
On the number of OFWs who joined the program, since we started our operation in July 2010, we trained 120 OFWs and 45 completed the 11-week course. At present, there were more than 40 OFWs who availed of the loans amounting to more than 3 million Philippine pesoand currently, we have loan applications being processed. We want them to be productive so that when their contract as household workers in Singapore ends, they have invested on something which will help them eventually.
Does ASKI also help in addressing the issue on the abuse of domestic helpers?
RBV: There are many domestic helpers working in Singapore. To address the issue on violence or abuse among household workers, ASKI helped them by educating their employers through the employees themselves. We let them know (the employers) that this is what their household worker is doing. I remember during the graduation of the first batch of the OFWs, the employers were also there. It is also creating awareness among them.
Now that we already created an impact and with this program, we got an approval from the Overseas Economic Board of Singapore that eventually we will also train not only OFWs but also Indonesian and Sri Lankans.
One of our clients is a household worker of a Belgian Ambassador, according to the Ambassador he will promote what ASKI is doing and will help in fund raising to help more OFWs.
What are the supports that you get from other institutions?
RBV: Some of the activities by ASKI are being supported by Citibank and other institutions. We also work closely with the labor attaché. In my recent visit to Singapore to meet the overseas Filipino workers, he explained to us the support that we can get from them. Right now, we are accredited as trainer also.
In 2010, the National University of Singapore – Center for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy sent their students to ASKI Philippines to have a full grasp of what we are doing and they found out that microfinance can also be implemented in their country. As the social arm of NUS, another batch of students visited ASKI recently.
We are also hoping that we can replicate the program in Singapore in other countries like Italy, Spain and other Asian countries. Because of the positive impact of the ASKI Singapore, we received an offer to set up an office in Milan, Italy and Barcelona, Spain.
In Singapore, we are trying to cater not only the household workers but also the professional Filipinos. We encourage them to support the Filipino community.
What is the motivation behind the success of ASKI especially now that you are now going global?
RBV: ASKI started from scratch and because we are members of different networks we now have a lot of improvements. The challenge for us is to introduce innovations to help other people and identify the real causes of poverty.
Why are they migrating to other countries that even professionals are leaving? I think, something must be done by ASKI. It’s not only credit. We have to go beyond credit for transformation. We have to transform them.
Nobody thought that we can set up an office in Singapore. I keep on telling the staff to dream big dreams and if your heart is on helping the poor you will challenge yourself to be more creative. Innovations are important among the microfinance player.
Do you really help the poorest of the poor?
RBV: Reaching the poorest of the poor requires more time and effort. We can say that we are reaching them however only a small number. The challenge for us is how to get into the hard-to-reach area and continue our programs with the indigenous peoples. We are also engage in community organizing and we help them to be part of the value chain financing in agriculture.
How do you see the government working with the private sector?
RBV: The government and the private sector should work as a team. We cannot do it alone. The government cannot do it alone. The problem of poverty is the concern of everybody.
