CARD MRI - San Pablo City, Philippines

In 1986, after the People Power Revolution, my vision of establishing a bank owned and managed by landless poor coconut farmers became a reality. I, along with 14 rural development practitioners, began with a capital of twenty pesos, an office with an old desk and three chairs, and an old and battered typewriter, to create the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD). We provided a mix of training and livelihood activities to landless coconut workers in San Pablo City, Laguna, supported by the Landless People’s Development Fund (LPDF). We quickly realized that our interventions weren't having a sustainable impact on the communities we were serving. We understood that people needed a way to build assets in order to move out of poverty. With the help of Professor Takayoshi  

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Amenomori, who gave CARD its first program support of USD20,000, we were able to rethink and re-imagine our approach to addressing poverty. We concluded that people needed more than just training and livelihood assistance; they needed to be empowered through the ownership and control of capital.