In the name of God, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful!
All praises be to God, that we survived the most difficult year in the century! Our recovery is remarkable as we survived the 2020 COVID-19 crisis, the defining global health crisis of our time, with a minimal loss of less than ₱400 million despite the fact that our Client Community Services (CCS) expenses for 2020 totaled over ₱859 million. So, in effect, we didn’t have any loss in the year 2020.
Therefore, I am taking this opportunity to pay gratitude to our Clients for their diligent payments that kept us afloat, despite their awful sufferings in managing their livelihood and their family members’ health hazard. A heartfelt thanks to all our staff, in particular the MFOs, for taking the risk, in the midst of the pandemic, of serving clients and assisting them during natural calamities. On behalf of the Board and Management, I thank everyone who was part of our agonizing journey of 2020.
Despite the challenges of COVID-19 and the difficulties in helping our Nanays to revive their livelihood, we still chalked up an extraordinary milestone achievement. ADB’s 1st loan tranche to ASA Philippines last June 18, 2020 made us proud to be the 1st NGO to receive a non-guaranteed loan from ADB in its entire history. Thank you to ADB for this funding that helped us to address the pandemic.
Viva 2021 to everyone! We are projecting 2021 to be a rejuvenated year of recovery. We are committed to help our clients in every possible way to revive their lost livelihood, so, this year 2021 MalASAkit will still be a dominant product for our Nanays to choose. Our growth this year will come from within as we may not be able to open new branches. Growth from within means growth from our existing branches. The lessons we learned in two pilot branches in the province of Pampanga shall be applied to the rest of the country and that is enough to help us grow by 8.5% both in terms of outreach and portfolio.
I pray for everyone’s safety and good health! Viva 2021!
Kamrul Hasan Tarafder
President and CEO
January 15 2021