The project

Gloria De Mata Enterprises is a garment business managed and owned by Gloria De Mata. She started with the business in 2003, when she took over from her sister who migrated to the US. An important consideration for Gloria to rebuild the business was to continue to provide employment to her neighbors, whose income is dependent from this work.

Her care for her neighbors also included taking in part time apprentices and to enable children of her seamstresses to continue with their schooling. This all was momentarily paused when in 2011 a fire burnt down her stall in Baclaran. All the stocks and important documents got burned. It looked like the end of her business, but especially concerns for the future of her workers made her decide to continue and borrow money from her sister abroad. Through her perseverance she was able to secure bulk orders from the provinces and this created the need for working with an institution that could support her business. Through the Negosyong Pinoy Finance Corporation, she was able to increase the number of orders she could manage; this resulted in 5 additional full time jobs.