Tuesday, September 25, 2007 Book launched to promote entrepreneurship, encourage
THE micro-finance program of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (Rafi) aims to inspire budding entrepreneurs as it released its book on real life stories on businesses that have sprung from the countryside.
The book “Beyond the Seed Money: Business Success in the Grassroots” aims to “impart messages of progress in the individual, family or community level through entrepreneurship.”
“These stories are worth sharing. There’s a great world out there and we’ll learn a lot from their experiences,” Rafi president Roberto Aboitiz told reporters.
Selected
The book contains stories of selected 19 Cebu Micro Enterprise Development Foundation Inc. (CMEDFI) women entrepreneurs, who imparted their character, values and best business practices.
The CMEDFI program aims to alleviate poverty and improve the standard of living on a sustainable basis by providing financial opportunities to hardworking businesswomen and their families. It has been operating since 1999.
Role models
CMEDFI is honored to become part of the transformation of each woman where they became wo-men with a purpose and role models in their family and communities, the foundation said in a statement.
CMEDFI said these women took the challenge of improving their lives through entrepreneurship, which is an endeavor they established through hard work, ingenuity, discipline and faith.
Change
“These women are some of the highly spirited entrepreneurs of CMEDFI who, by sheer guts, hard work and faith, rose above poverty and hopelessness and changed the course of their lives,” Marivir Montebon, the writer of the book, said in a statement.
“These are the things I have learned from my encounter with them,” she said in her speech during the book launching.
Encounter
“I have encountered these women only once in their homes by the sea or in the vast mountains beyond the reach of mobile communication, and each time I finished talking with them, I always told myself that there is no reason for most of us to complain about life,” she added.
Rosa Villena of Naga, one of the women entrepreneurs featured in the book, shared her experience during the launching.
Coping
She revealed how she was able to cope with her financial difficulties after she lost her husband and nine-year-old son when a speeding container ten-wheeler truck rammed their house.
She said she believes she was given a new lease on life as she bounced back from the tragedy and continued the trading business she and her husband started 10 years before the accident.
Inspiration
The countryside can be a source of opportunity and inspiration for thousands of people who will eventually realize that business success in the grassroots is possible, Rafi also said in a statement. (TEP)
