From Asylee to Successful Enterpreneur!

Selvadurai Pathmatasan in front of his shop!

Fifteen years ago, fleeing civil war in his native Sri Lanka, Selvadurai Pathmatasan was admitted to America as an asylee. Exhibiting his entrepreneurial spirit, he opened a gas station. Many years later, he used $30,000 in profits to open a mini-mart on Third Street near Market Street in Old City. However, the economic recession that hit in 2008 and the underground pipe repairs that closed his street for 15 months, nearly made him give up.

This is where the Women's Opportunities Resource Center (WORC), a Philadelphia nonprofit that administers various programs, among them a microloan one, begun in 2013, using $195,000 a year from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to help refugees who are small-business owners survive and thrive. WORC allotted Pathmatasan $8,000 in order to repair his credit and restock his shelves with books, scarves, bracelets, toiletries, Liberty Bell-themed souvenirs and other items.

This week, with a nod to World Refugee Day on Friday, WORC also announced loans ranging from $1,500 to $15,000 to 10 more recipients in Philadelphia and Upper Darby.
Yurfee B. Shaikalee, an asylee from Liberia who arrived last year, is one of them.
WORC works with a number of organizations, such as the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians, and HIAS Pennsylvania, a resettlement agency, in order to help "loan-ready" refugees and asylees in Philadelphia, Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, and Chester Counties.
Federal funding will be given to WORC through 2017, given it shows success of the program.
Read more about Pathmatasan’s story and WORC employee’s testimonials here!