Back To School

Carmina Bayombong, the CEO of youth development programme invested, tells us how she wants to end college dropouts in the Philippines, and how being part of the Cartier women's initiative programme changed her life

- Hillary Kang

Carmina Bayombong knows how difficult it is for the average Filipino to attain a college education. Bayombong’s parents struggled to pay for their degrees due to poverty: her mother, who was one of ten children, managed to finance her degree through scholarships. But Bayombong knows that she was an outlier, and that many more youths in the Philippines – who often drop out due to poverty or teenage pregnancy – are not as fortunate. “The odds are stacked against these students,” says Bayombong. “Despite our excellent repayment rates, most people are hesitant to lend money to students, many of whom need just P35,000 (S$910) to graduate. Despite working many part time jobs, this is still an impossible sum to raise for many.”

That’s why Bayombong wanted to set up InvestEd, a development and lending programme to help youths pay their way through college, and to set them up for a successful career after graduation. What she didn’t expect was how resistant industry experts would be to her idea. “They kept telling us never to lend to the poor, because they would never pay their loans,” she says. “What was most painful was being told not to lend to women, because they will get pregnant and not pay their loans.”

This pushback extended beyond her idea, extending to Bayombong herself: “Minority women are constantly asked by funders if we plan to have a family,” says the 28-year-old. “We are constantly being told to raise money from friends and family first – but most female entrepreneurs in developing countries don’t have rich friends and family.”