Faridah’s Story
Background
Faridah is a 51-year-old single parent staying in a 1-room rental flat with her 22- year-old son. She has an O Level certificate and works as a part-time Community Enabler at a Social Service Agency. She also has a home-based business, Frcocina, selling savory food. She also volunteers in her neighborhood.
Goals and Aspirations
Upon joining EFI, Faridah had HDB rental arrears. Her main goal was to clear off her arrears. This was important to her, as she views arrears as a barrier to meeting her other goals. During our conversation with her, she shared that once her arrears would be fully paid off, she would be able to focus on building up her savings and improve her homebased business. Faridah aims to see an increase in her sales and maintain stability through regular food orders.
EFI as an enabler for Faridah’s goals
Within the first half of the pilot, Faridah was able to completely pay off her HDB rental arrears. While Faridah was also on a savings matching programme, she used $500 from the $1500 grant to help clear her arrears faster. With her mind finally free from the burden of financial debts, Faridah was able to start working on her other goals. She spent $770 on a gold bracelet, seeing it as an appreciating asset, and thus, an investment. Faridah shared that the gold bracelet could also potentially help her should a crisis occur in the future which requires her to sell it for urgent cash. The remainder of the grant money ($230) went into savings, which is also one of Faridah’s goals. She consistently deposited into EFI’s savings matching account and has received a total match of $1300 at the end of the pilot.
Question Time with Faridah
What attracted you to the EFI program?
The assistance and the knowledge I got
The savings matching program
How did you go about achieving your goals?
By sharing knowledge during our monthly meetups with other participants and by connecting with them through different platforms.
What have you learnt from the process?
To be more disciplined
To learn from others on how to improve my home based business
Nothing is impossible!
What are your next steps?
To be able to save more and sustain my financial situation
To learn how to market my home based business
What advice do you have for families that want to follow in your footsteps?
You start with nothing but when your confidence starts to grow, you will feel proud of your achievements. Then it’s all about happiness and big smiles.
Learn more about Faridah’s home based business.