“Smile!” Everyone’s heard it. You hear it right before school photos. Family pictures. Groupfies. Photographers coax it out of models, and for good reason—it makes the photo look good! Why? Because a bright, confident smile is possibly the most beautiful thing that a person can wear.
But a smile does more than just show someone’s best features. In particular, a smile lifts a woman up and gives her the power to lift up everyone around her. This is especially true if the smile comes from a real, beautiful, and empowering experience.
This truth provided the inspiration for a photo series called “Ngiting Tagumpay.” Produced by microlender Tala Philippines in celebration of Women’s Month, the campaign features real Tala users who were photographed while remembering their real-life victories. The photos celebrate the countless other women who fight—and win—very real battles day in, and day out.
Tala is a money lending app that underwrites borrowers in real time using non-traditional data from the customer’s phone. The company seeks to provide financial services to people left behind by traditional credit channels, providing loans that help customers build a digital credit history in the long run.
One of the photo series’ subjects is Aimee, 42, who was featured with the Ngiting “Confidently Beautiful sa Pag-Budget.” An entrepreneur and housewife, Aimee grew a small loan into a business venture that made her financially independent.
She invested her first P1,000 to sell packed food, then reinvested what she earned until her business took on a life of its own. Now, her business has grown to include frozen food, beauty products, and even a small micro-lending operation of her own.
Aimee has many more ideas in her head, and none of them include asking her husband for money. That keeps her smiling every day!
“Real smiles are drawn from happiness, and nothing inspires happiness more than the feeling that you’re trusted and empowered,” says Angelo Madrid, Country Manager. “These smiles remind us of why we keep doing what we do at Tala.”
Tala is a company with a dream to build a world where underserved people have financial access, choice, and control. Founded in 2014, the California-based company analyzes data from one’s smart phone to gauge an individual’s ability and willingness to repay loans.
As of today, Tala has already provided loans to over 2.5 million people worldwide.
This system of radical trust has proven particularly helpful for women, especially in countries like Mexico, India, Kenya, Tanzania, and the Philippines—cultures where women have traditionally limited roles in the family’s income generation.
To learn more about Tala, visit tala.ph or check out Tala Philippines on Facebook and Google Play.