Dodie Santos: Soul-winning Micro Entrepreneur and Tricycle Operator

Nanay Dodie receives 'boundary' from one of her tricycle drivers.

Nanay Dodie and her family.

Micro entrepreneur Dolorosa Santos  was named honorable mention in the 2014 Thurman Award program of Hope International, a CCT ministry partner-organization based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA.  The award is named after Eric Thurman, Hope International’s founder.  This is Nanay Dolorosa’s inspiring story. 

  

Dolorosa ‘Dodie’ Santos of Novaliches, Quezon City owns a sari-sari (retail) store, a wholesale store, a motorcycle spare parts store, and six tricycles which she rents out to tricycle drivers in her neighborhood. She has received microfinance loans from CCT since August 2005.

Nanay Dodie uses her tricycle business not just to help provide jobs for neighbors but also to bring them to the Lord.  In 2011, she began implementing a policy in which the drivers had a special privilege of paying only 50% ‘boundary’* on Sundays if they attended the 3 pm worship service at her church.  

Nanay Dodie with her youngest son. 

 The drivers protested in the beginning, but Dolorosa was insistent, saying the church service at (the Jesus Is Lord Fellowship in Novaliches) would take up only two hours of their time, and that they would have to find another tricycle operator otherwise.

 The drivers began attending church with her, reluctantly at first, but all six of them have since been born-again, and many members of their families as well! Today, Nanay Dolorosa brings as many as 100 persons to church with her. They ride the tricycles, and a van she bought (using a CCT loan) for this purpose. 

“My most fervent dreams are no longer for myself or for my family. The Lord has blessed my family beyond what I ever hoped for,” says Nanay Dodie whose family used to live in a wooden shack just a few square meters wide.  Today they live in a two-story concrete house with a roof deck.  “ We already have more than enough materially.   I want to be able to create jobs for others because I believe it is easier to lead persons to Jesus Christ when their stomachs are not empty.”  

*In the tricycle operation business, a driver may pick up the tricycle as early as 3 or 4 in the morning and return it late at night and pay the owner a 'boundary'. As tricycle operator, Nanay Dodie receives between  P310 and P360 per day per tricycle -- a higher amount is charged for newer tricycles -- and the driver keeps whatever is left as his earnings.

Photos:  Griffin Wilson