Share and Care’s Women Empowerment program is specifically designed to encourage millions of Zulieben who are illiterate and poor having no help or resources but street smart with a lot of wisdom, ambition and initiative. If given proper encouragement either to start their own small business or to acquire some skills to stand their own ground, they would thrive.
Share and Care believes that this program is necessary to further its ambition of developing millions of rural youth by providing them the opportunity to explore their full potential. Our Women’s Empowerment programs are implemented in partnership with several local NGOs. Women are learning computer skills, tailoring, embroidery work, stitching, masala making and many more skills to self-help groups for their own development and their rights. Share and Care has already witnessed a phenomenal positive change in the lives of these women and their families.
Our Zulieben is a member of one such self-help group AMBA. Some 3,800 women who get an initial loan of
Rs. 5,000/- to Rs. 10,000/- to start their own business.
These loans are given without any collateral and they carry an interest rate that they could not get from the regular bank. The loans are recovered in monthly installments with full recovery within 3 to 5 years. AMBA is fully managed by its members like Zulieben.
Zulieben got her first loan of Rs. 5,000/- from AMBA in 1999 to start her business of making the bricks and selling them locally. I went to see Zulieben in 2001. Their dwelling had improved and I was told that both her children, Anvar and Nabila, were doing well in school and had reading books. They even joined extra classes to learn English for computer education. I was happy to see this transformation. It reinforced our resolve to encourage as many Zulieben as we can. The climax of this visit was when Zulieben talked about her successes and future challenges. Even though she was hugely successful in her business, she was not satisfied with this level of achievement. She talked to me about her plans to expand the business in the next two years. She explained that due to the construction boom in the area, she could not keep up with the demand under her current manufacturing capacity. I was amazed at Zulieben’s understanding of maximizing utilization of the fixed assets in order to improve the margin. She said, “Sir if you can lend me 50,000 Rupees, I can sell brick four times”. Here, our Zulieben was talking about improving the inventory turns with the same level of fixed asset. Is not this what our elite management schools talk about?
It gives us immense satisfaction and joy in permanently transforming the future of Zulieben’s family. We invite you to join us in this most cost effective program by pledging your support for each Zulieben.
--- Jayant Shroff |
