National qualifying exam for CARD scholarship set on March 2020

As part of CARD Mutually Reinforcing Institutions’ (CARD MRI) thrust to produce one graduate per family, the CARD MRI scholarship program is set to conduct its national qualifying examination in all designated testing areas in CARD’s respective offices on March 7, 2020, Saturday.

CARD MRI is now accepting applications from microfinance clients and their children.

Applicants who are eligible to take the qualifying exam must be a client or client’s child under CARD MRI’s financial institutions namely: CARD, Inc. (A Microfinance NGO), CARD Bank, Inc., CARD SME Bank, Inc., and CARD MRI Rizal Bank, Inc. The client must have at least three years of membership with any of CARD MRI’s financial institutions, with 100% repayment rate, and 90% attendance rate during weekly center meetings. Children of client-savers are also qualified to take the exam if the client-savers are at least five years in the institution.

Application forms will be given by their Account Officers and must be filled up and submitted days before the examination date.

More than 5k scholarship slots available

A total of 5, 931 scholarship slots for high school and college will be given to children of CARD clients and also to those clients who hope to finish their education through the Balik Eskwela program.

Qualified high school scholars will receive PHP 3,000.00 annually, while college scholars will receive PHP 12,000.00 per year.

Every college scholar will receive financial support for maximum of four years and assured to have immediate employment under CARD MRI after graduation.

Since its inception in 2000, CARD Scholarship Program has produced 5,709 college graduates, 2,498 high school graduates and has provided 15,756 scholarship nationwide.

Education for poverty eradication

Said CARD MRI Managing Director Flordeliza Sarmiento, “CARD MRI believe that education is one of the potent tools in eradicating poverty.” In 2016, CARD MRI launched ‘One family, One graduate’ program. It aims to help every family it serves to have one college graduate.

“With our efforts to provide better access to education, we see it as a sure opportunity to the development of the families we serve and help them escape the chronic circle of poverty,” Sarmiento concluded.