Raised by a poor parents in Talim Island, Navotas, Cardona, Rizal, Analyn Mesa Celestra experience how hard life is. At an early age,she started dreaming of having a career someday and to experience a better a life. Unfortunately, her parents were not able to completely support her Nursing course so she stops on her second year. When she got married to Daniel Celestra at age 25, she promised herself to work doubly hard. She put up a small sari-sari store and reloading business to help her husband who at that time works in SEAFDEC.
With her husband’s permission, she joins ASHI in 2009 to access and increase her capital. Because her store is located near the port(locally known as “Pritil”) her store increasingly grows. She added commodities and tie up with a refilling station of alkaline treated mineral water (20 containers) to augment the need of safe drinking water and LPG (10 gasul tanks) as a replacement for woods/charcoal which is commonly used by households. She now supplies mineral water and LPG tanks to the community in the barangay.
She also bought (2) units of coffee vendo machine for early travelers and fisher folks and also bought 2 units of motorcycle and plan to buy sidecar for faster delivery of her commodities.
Fortunately when her husband works in Cainta, he meets a load dealer and they decided to invest on it. She invited friends and acquaintances to become her retailers. Now she provided employment to (15) people from different barangays along Talim Island.She has a total investment of P60,000.00 as load dealer and earning 2% of sales per month. They also invested on computer shop to help people in the community have access to internet and now earning average of P650.00 per day on rental and printing.
Investments
From her succeeding ASHI loans and earnings they invested on fishing business and fabrication of fiber glass boat after his husband ends his contract from previous employment. They now owns a fish pond (270 square meters) and 7 fish cages with an area of 200 square meter each for tilapia and bighead breeding. They harvest twice a year from their fishpond and directly sell to fish port in Mainland Binangonan, Rizal and harvest fingerlings every after 2 months. Her husband also helps local fishermen by hiring them during harvest time. He also repairs boat and construct fiber glass boat for sale. He was able to sell 4 boats a year. From their income they now own a fiber glass boat use for delivery and transport of goods.
The couple plans to invest more on fishing business, put up an appropriate computer shop to save from rentals, expand her store and loading business. The couple believes that with their partnership they will succeed as well as help more people in the community earn a living.