They took us to some of the "family based enterprises" that have been started due to loans from Hand in Hand. The following is a picture of an embroidery enterprise. These women are attaching beads to this sari.
This particular business is doing very well. The women said that before they started taking loans 5 years ago they were only able to take commissioned sales where a buyer was able to pay for their purchase in advance. Now they are able to buy supplies and have a small stock of saris for potential buyers. They are able to buy the materials for one sari for about 300 rupees and sell the finished product for about 1000. Not a bad profit margin. Although, they say that they could still use a bigger loan because they would like would like to expand.
I didn't take a good enough picture, but these saris were so beautiful.
Another embroidery enterprise.
The next business we went to was a cycle shop. Hand in Hand worked with some women to train them how to fix bicycles and they have opened a shop right on the main road.
They even made it into the local paper.
This is the owner of the shop.
Hand in Hand prides themselves on a "5-Pillar" approach to development. They focus on child labor, SHGs and microfinance, citizen centers, health and environment. We went to one of their training centers that focused on the environment. They have many initiatives in this village to reduce the amount of plastic that people use. They've also planted many trees and educated people about how to properly dispose of wet and solid waste.
Kalina, you'll like this one - they teach the women how to compost with worms and recycle the products for their gardens and agriculture.
Next we visited a vocational training center where daughters of SHG members or young SHG members were learning how to sew. Each person had their own portfolio of tiny versions of thec clothes they had learned to sew and they were very proud to show us.
At the end of the 2 month course, they are given a certificate which is recognized in commercial garment shops. We asked the girls what they wanted to do when the course was finished and a few said they wanted to go work for a company, a few said they wanted to start their own business out of their homes, and a few together wanted to start their own business in a retail shop.
Lastly we visited a weekly meeting of one of the SHGs in the area. Apparently we were late and so most of the business of the meeting was already finished, but they humored us by pretending to have the meeting anyway. I really didn't like that because one thing I've really internalized is how valuable these womens' time is. Regardless, they stuck around and answered a bunch of our questions and were very gracious.
One thing that we asked each group was what they think has changed in their lives since joining the self help group. They said the main thing is that they are not afraid to talk to men and people in power now. They have so much responsibility and power within their group that the confidence has spilled over. Accompanying us on our visit was a man who had worked in microfinance for many years with a company called NABARD. He asked the group if they had heard of NABARD and they said no. A few seconds later a woman in the back said (and I take this from the translation of course) "If you ask us what is NABARD and then we say no, you should tell us what it is you're talking about." Of course, this is not data or hard significant evidence, but the confidence just exhuded from these women. It was quite remarkable.
Of course, you have to take these interactions with a grain of salt as we were being led by staff from Hand in Hand. We know that they would never take us to a group that was not affected positivly by their loans, just as they would not take us to an enterprise that was failing. It's inspiring to see the stories of the people who are so positively affected by this access to credit, but we can't forget that the experience is not universal. I will write more on this topic later, mainly because there's too much to say, and I've already posted a lot!!
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