A treasure no one can take away

Karen Reyes puts her arm around her eldest son, Karl Rafael, as a sign of her support in achieving his dreams.
Posted on January 26, 2021

There are always two options ahead of us, either to quit or to move forward; but for Karen Reyes, a mother of three children, this is not the time to quit – not when her children’s education is on the line.

Karen believes that education is a treasure no one can take away. This is her guiding force in making sure that her children, particularly her eldest son, Karl Rafael Reyes, receives his education the best possible way despite the pandemic. This is a treasure she would like her children to inherit from her.

To achieve this, Karen took the role of being a konek2CARD Agent in CARD Bank Pili, Bula 2 Unit, Center Camay 5, while she sells kikiam, fishball, and siomai outside their home. Her husband, on the other hand, works in a sugar mill near their hometown in Camarines Sur. Together, they work hard to provide for the basic needs of their children. However, they admit that the amount they earn from their small business is not enough.

Putting their trust in CARD Bank is the solution they came up with and is the best decision they made for their children. CARD Bank supports low-income families through the bank’s affordable loan products and services. Among these services include the Zero Dropout Program, a low-interest educational loan, exclusive for CARD clients with children in elementary, high school, and senior high school. At CARD Bank, clients may avail up to PhP 3,000 to help them with their children’s educational needs.

Through this program, it became possible for Karen, not only to provide her eldest son’s school supplies but also his miscellaneous fees in school. More importantly, the Zero Dropout Program has sustained Karl Rafael’s education seven times since 2016, from when Karl Rafael is in Grade 1.

Now, Karl Rafael is in Grade 5. With modular distance learning taking the place of face-to-face classes, being a mother and a teacher to her son is quite challenging for Karen. Fortunately, with the help of CARD Bank and the right people, including her in-laws who have continuously shared their Wi-Fi to support Karl Rafael’s online education, Karen knows that his son will achieve whatever it is that he dreams of in the future.

With Karen’s sixth year at CARD Bank, she looks forward to availing of the institution’s educational loan program once again to support Karl Rafael until he reaches college.

Since Karl Rafael is an achiever, a consistent honor student from Grades 1 to 4, Karen is even more optimistic that her son will achieve his dream of being a policeman in the future. Indeed, with the help of CARD Bank and its Zero Dropout Program, education is a treasure no one can take away from them.

Karl Rafael is one of the more than 58,000 beneficiaries of the Zero Dropout Program in Bicol as of September 2021. To know more about CARD Bank’s educational loan program, leave a message at CARD Bank’s official Facebook page, @CARDBankOfficial.