Volunteer with us at Mother Teresa’s Soup Kitchen in Chicago or R.E.S.T Shelter in Uptown Chicago or join us by making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the soup kitchen. It’s fun, easy and free!
Donate Goods
DONATE GOODS
The following items are always needed for the food project “FEED 70 for $17”
7 loaves of bread
5 jars of peanut butter
5 jars of jelly
Sandwich zip lock bag of (100 quantity)
7 packages of cookies (for 70 people)
70 juice boxes
70 bags of individual sized chips
The following items are needed for the ‘MICROLOAN’project
Donate your fully functioning items to a woman who wants to start her hair straightening business
Ceramic flat iron
Blow dryer
Curling iron
Cleaning Clutter?
Donate your gently used items to AmVets or Salvation Army. They come and pick up the items for you and give you a tax donation form
The No Interest Small Business Loan
Mary Anne Ballasote used her $100 microloan money to start selling homemade Filipino sausages
We provide a no interest $50 to $100 dollar loan to a woman who wants to start a business on her own. Once she pays back her loan the money is then recycled out and loaned to another woman who wants to start her business and the process is repeated again.
Types of businesses that are sponsored by our microloans:
* inventory for an at home convenience store
* at home spa (manicure/pedicure/hair straightening)
* homemade Filipino sausages
* homemade Filipino cakes and desserts
Ways you can help:
* sponsorship – donate $50 to $100 so we can loan this amount out to a new recipient to start their own business ). 100% of what you donate goes directly to the loan recipient you sponsor.
* donate your gently used blow dryer, flat iron and curling iron
* $50 shipping fee sponsorship to send a box full of donated blow dryers, flat and curling irons for multiple recipients to the Philippines
What we are planning to do in the future:
Offer business and computer courses to help our loan recipients so that they can become an educated and independent businesswoman so she can help herself and her family in return
Sponsor a Feeding Sponsor a Loan
Mary Anne Ballasote receiving her microloan money
DONATE FUNDS
Since we do not have the resources or money to start a formal 401 3c any monetary sponsorship you make we will give you the original receipt so you can claim it for charitable donation to your accountant. We do not charge a fee and 100% of what you give goes directly to the recipients.
Ex. If you sponsor the “FEED 70 for $17” project we will give you the original grocery store receipt so you can use it however you wish for tax purposes
Ex.If you sponsor the shipping of donated flat irons to the Philippines, we will giveyou the original shipping receipt given to us from the shipping company so that you can use it however you wish for tax purposes
Feed 70 People for $17
sandwiches on it's way to the soup kitchen for distribution
Make 70 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for 70 people. Donated sandwiches will go to the Mother Teresa Soup Kitchen in Chicago to feed the homeless
Our Microloan Recipients
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- Mary Anne Ballasote used her microloan money to start her homemade Filipino sausage business
- Gigi Panganiban is using her microloan money to add inventory to her mini convenient store
- Penny Villejo will be using the pedicure set and flat iron to start her at home spa service
- Nita Villejo will be starting her Filipino homemade dessert business with her microloan money
About Us
meeting Ricky Martin who inspired us to start the microloan program for women
Just in case you are wondering if we are a big non profit organization – we are not. It’s just me and my husband. All of our expenses and donations for this project primarily come out of our own pocket.
I am a big fan of Ricky Martin not just because of his music but for the charity work he does. We heard that while traveling in India he took in two Indian girls who were abused. He now has a foundation that helps abused children similar to those he sheltered. It was his act of kindness and generosity that inspired us to start the No Interest Microloan project (see microloan project for details) .
Although we did not have deep pockets nor the resources, we simply got creative with what we had. We started to loan out $50 to $100 no interest loans to women in the Philippines to start their business. We are currently on our 5th loan and hope to do more microloans to other impoverished countries (we are targeting India and Pakistan next).
We are starting this project to bring awareness to the Chicago community that it doesn’t take a lot of money nor effort to help others around you and around the world. If the both of us can make a difference you can too! Come join us!