Susan’s Sewing Business

Roads leading to the Payatas community are lined with garbage trucks that dump Manila’s waste onto an enormous mountain of garbage. Thousands of families live on the dump and its perimeter. Housing is dilapidated and garbage is scattered through the community, fouling the air and water supply. Recycling is the main industry here. For $1 a month, people can sort through the garbage before it is dumped on the smoking mountain of rot. Less fortunate recyclers scavenge through the dump itself for plastic containers and bits of metal to clean and sell.

Susan Napi and her children might be sorting through garbage today but for her Opportunity loan, which she invested in her sewing talent. She was nervous about applying for credit, but her alternatives were grim. Garbage picking is dangerous. People have been buried in muck slides, and pickers are vulnerable to deadly diseases.

Her initial hesitation vanished with her first order. With a used, treadle sewing machine and the working capital to purchase fabric in bulk, she has not had an idle day. Her book bulges with orders, including a contract to sew staff uniforms for a local bank. She is making weekly payments on her loan and is looking forward to her second one. She plans to buy an electric sewing machine so she can work faster and take more orders. As for her children, she no longer worries about them growing up to be dump pickers. They are making good grades in school, and she believes she will be able to provide their college tuition.

July 10, 2000 In Payatas today, a 30 foot wall of garbage collapsed burying 200 shanties and killing over a hundred people. Two Opportunity International microcredit clients were killed along with their families in the disaster. Susan Napi and her children were not harmed.