Hapinoy continues to spread joy

On Aug. 24, 2011, Bam Aquino of Hapinoy found himself on the receiving end of a $25,000 grant from the Singapore National Committee for UN Women (UN Women Singapore) and MasterCard Worldwide.

It was the culmination of a deep and wide search for women and children empowerment projects that spanned 450 entries from 50 countries across several months, and Bam’s Hapinoy Store Program from the Philippines, had just won the top prize.

Before the euphoria could taper off, Bam and Hapinoy managing director Mark Ruiz found themselves celebrating another recognition in Dalian, China. In less than a month, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship announced that Hapinoy was one of five Asian Social Entrepreneurs for 2011.

Hapinoy, however, is no overnight success story. Says Bam, “It’s been a four-year journey and we feel we have a lot of momentum going on our fifth year. In the beginning, we always felt that no one else seemed to appreciate what we were trying to do. I guess it just took some time for people to take note of us and throw in their support.”

Then again, Hapinoy, a micro-enterprise development program directed toward female micro-entrepreneurs, seemed destined for the spotlight. Since 2007, Bam and his management team, composed of Jaime Lopa, Erika Tatad and Mark Ruiz, have been tirelessly working with their staff in supporting female sari-sari storeowners.

The Hapinoy Store Program harnesses supply chain efficiencies which translates to 5 to 15 percent cost savings for the stores, and provides the women with skills training and coaching in an effort to provide opportunities for them to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.

Now that Hapinoy’s approach to poverty alleviation is being recognized in the region, Bam is hoping that this will pave the way to greater awareness for their cause. “At the end of the day, more than just the recognition, we’re hoping these awards will get more individuals and institutions to support what we’re doing and help us help the hundreds of thousands of micro entrepreneurs in our country.”

On The Radar spoke to Bam about Hapinoy’s roots, the foundation and people that support it, and how we can all pitch in to help fight poverty.

PHILIPPINE STAR: With two international awards under your belt, how do you intend to leverage all this attention?

BAM AQUINO: We actually just arrived from Dalian, China where we participated in one of the World Economic Forum events, the Annual Meeting of New Champions or informally known as the Summer Davos.

We were awarded there and got to speak in two sessions—me for frugal innovation and Mark for creative approaches in poverty alleviation.  

We got to meet other social entrepreneurs, CEOs of big companies and even a few government officials who were all very interested in new models to fight poverty. All of them were interested in the Hapinoy Program and it seems we are quite unique and innovative, even on that world stage.

Of course, we are hoping these meetings will translate to actual support for the program, but to be frank, just being able to say that Hapinoy is a homegrown Filipino contribution to the fight against poverty is already very gratifying.

How did Hapinoy come about?

It started with an idea of Mark to harness the untapped potential of the hundreds of thousands of sari-sari stores in the Philippines.  

Bam with pioneer Hapinoy Nanays: Edita Miranda, CS Candelaria Quezon and Nelia Macaraan, CS Pagbilao

Eventually, we met other like-minded individuals who had similar ideas but were tackling it from the micro-finance perspective.  

Their view was that the micro businesses of the clients of micro-finance institutions could still be supported and harnessed.

These individuals included Aris Alip, founder of CARD-MRI, the largest micro-finance institution in the country, Rapa Lopa, then executive director of the Benigno Aquino Foundation and now executive director of PBSP (Philippine Business for Social Progress), Manny de Luna, Perry Villa, Franco Sevilla, Jim Lopa and Willie Uy (former and current executives of large companies, both multinational and local).  

We combined ideas late 2006 and formally set up MicroVentures in 2007. The first program (and still only program) is the sari-sari store/micro-finance/business development project which Franco, a former advertising executive, dubbed the Hapinoy Program.

Hapinoy has gone beyond the standard micro-lending business model by taking a holistic and involved approach to helping micro businesses. How did the brilliant idea of consolidating sari-sari store orders to help them take advantage of bulk discounts, coupled with training and coaching come about?

Mark always says the sari-sari store is the last mile and the Holy Grail for all manufacturers. There was just no way to aggregate and help that sector reach its potential. So he was always playing around with the idea of bringing them together and the key for Hapinoy became the micro-finance institutions who traditionally have a significant number of their borrowers going into the sari-sari store business.

For me, whose background is social development, what we’re doing is a form of People Power — where the smallest get together to accomplish things greater than what they would have accomplished separately. 

I think Pinoys understand the concept of People Power because it is in our culture. We just need to remind people that our power is there. After all, sari-sari stores corner around 40 percent of all retail in the Philippines for most fast moving consumer goods.

All of Hapinoy’s Community Stores are owned by women micro-entrepreneurs whom you fondly call “nanay.” Is there any significance to why the focus is on mothers?

Most micro-finance caters only to women, and since Hapinoy is built on the micro-finance platform, we too focus primarily on women.

Studies show that any intervention done through the woman will more likely redound to the benefit of the family. Sari-sari stores are traditionally run by the women from their homes.

The goal of Hapinoy is to affect the whole family — nanays, tatays and the children, but we’ve found that the most effective entry point is through the mother.

Being a fairly young enterprise with an as yet novel concept, what are the challenges you have to face?

Everyday is a challenge! Not having a blueprint to follow is a challenge. Making sure that your social and economic goals are both addressed is a challenge. Growing while maintaining the same personal touch is a challenge. The way we see it, we have both the challenges of a start up enterprise and a social development organization like an NGO.

You have been quoted as saying that the nanays in your program go through changes in their mindset, self-image and belief systems. Of all the heartwarming stories from the women whose lives you’ve touched, what’s the most amazing story you’ve heard so far?

For me it was really seeing the transformation of the nanays physically, emotionally and socially. As their stores grow, you will physically see a transformation—they dress better, there’s hope in their eyes, there’s a positive aura around them. Emotionally, they are more confident, they look you in the eye, and they will tell you straight how to improve the program for them and their fellow nanays. Socially, they are more willing to help others, some have taken a mentoring role to the new members. We even have nanays who now help us do the training.

Would you say your model for business and community building is replicable outside the Philippines?

With some more work, definitely!

What kind of support can individuals, institutions and corporations extend to Hapinoy?

Companies can run programs through us for the nanays. The sari-sari store is largely shut out of opportunities given to supermarkets and wholesalers, but we are hoping that the program can be a gateway for these opportunities to go to them. We are hoping that corporations see that helping the stores and the communities they are a part of is both a good business and socially responsible decision on their part.

For individuals, institutions and families, we are looking for support in terms of training our nanays. This is the largest cost that we carry and we need help here. They can sponsor the cost of training for a community and help our micro entrepreneur nanays get to the next level.

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To find out more about or how you may support Hapinoy, visit http://www.hapinoy.com