It is hard to live without your parents’ guidance. Ma Htat Htat Linn stopped schooling when her parents died when she was in 8th grade. She lived with their grandparents with her other sibling. She started trading jewelries after she stopped schooling to help in their daily expenses.
When she got married 15 years ago, they lived in the world’s old but most accepted standard – a husband as the breadwinner and a wife as the light of the home. For seven years, she is a full time wife and a mother to her six-year old daughter.
Her husband worked as a driver delivering raw materials used in cheroot making since he finished his pre-university. He is providing MMK 40,000.00 a week for the family just enough to provide for their daily needs. Ma Htat Htat Linn, 35, thought she is still able and can help her husband while still being a wife and a mother.
She started her own small restaurant in front of their house eight years ago. She chose this kind of business because she learned cooking various viands from her Chinese and Indian neighbors when she was still a child. She is preparing food for lunch and dinner.
Her husband helped her in serving customers during his free time. Aside from the income her husband gets from driving and the earnings of her small restaurant, they are also renting a small house beside their house.
With the encouragement of her friend, she became a client of CARD Myanmar Co., Ltd. (CARD). She is one of the pioneering members of the institution. She joined a week before the center in her area opened. She was easily convinced because of its affordable loan products and convenient weekly meetings and payment. From MMK 100,000.00 initial loan, she now has MMK 330,000 loan that she invests in her small restaurant.
Ma Htat Htat Linn takes care of her record in CARD. She asks her neighbor to look over her business while she is attending their weekly center meeting. She always pay on time and never had an excuse to skip its weekly meeting despite her busy schedule with the trust that CARD can provide higher loan for her plan to expand her business in the near future.
From being just a housewife, Ma Htat Htat Linn feels more empowered with the assistance of the CARD to her business.
