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This post has been excerpted from the Valora blog. The original can be found here.

Before COVID-19, Nemia Madrigal ran a small convenience store in Manila, Philippines. Earnings from her store, along with her husband’s income as a tricycle driver, were modest but enough to provide for her family. Then came COVID-19.

As the Philippines went into strict lockdown, Nemia’s husband lost his job. Sales at her store plummeted. Like many families I know in the Philippines and all over the world, Nemia found herself struggling to feed herself and provide for her family.

In June 2020, the Grameen Foundation, a global nonprofit whose mission is to enable the poor to create a world without poverty and hunger, launched a project to help women micro entrepreneurs like Nemia provide for their families with an emergency cash relief program.

Working with local microfinance institutions, Grameen identified 3,500 women in Manila and Cebu to receive immediate relief support by providing digital access to grocery and medical packages and vouchers for their household needs and business sustainability. However, delivering aid in an expeditious and safe manner was difficult given the strict mobility restrictions in the cities and the danger of COVID infection. And Grameen wanted to take a long term approach.

Find out how Grameen, Celo and the Celo Alliance for Prosperity member, and local microfinance partners worked together to provide safe, efficient Blockchain assistance to women entrepreneurs so they could get back on their feet on the Valora website.

And we didn't stop there: Grameen and Celo also worked to help overseas Filipino workers who lost their jobs due to the pandemic--by providing cryptocurrency funds and training so they can start new microbusinesses.

You can invest in women's empowerment--and their crypto-powered small businesses--by supporting Grameen today.