Micro Enterprise Projects

Women’s skills, resilience, determination and ingenuity are valuable but greatly underused resources to overcoming poverty. We are committed to supporting these women claim their rights and make decisions that improves their quality of life. Long held and deeply entrenched prejudices will take time to break down but we know it can be done.

The issue

Women from extreme poverty tend to have fewer resources, fewer rights and fewer opportunities to make life-shaping decisions than men and when emergencies strike, they’re the worst affected. There are many, often complex, reasons why women are not reaching their full potential. Domestic violence, discrimination and lack of education are among the biggest barriers

Unlocking potential

With an education under their belt, a whole generation of girls will have opportunities that their mothers never had. With literacy comes confidence and the chance to earn more money, become self-sufficient and speak out against violence.

With laws and systems that guarantee better health care, fewer women will die in childbirth and fewer children will die from easily preventable diseases.

With loans, seeds, tools, better farming techniques and business training, more women will be able to grow more food, sew, craft and make goods that they can market themselves.

Micro Enterprise Training

We have led on the development of a comprehensive programme of micro-enterprises enabling these vulnerable women to break out of the “cycle of dependency” that so often traps the poor.

The micro-enterprises include:

• Small vending establishments
• Nursery raising and vermi compost making
• Vegetable garden promotion
• Goat or sheep rearing
• Garment making and handicraft items
• Other local resource based enterprise activities

The activities are low investment and simple technology oriented, enabling the recipients to form a manageable base and structure to their enterprise, which they can then maintain or develop at their own pace.

Each beneficiary is supported by a combination of intensive skills training, one to one mentoring, business start-up advice and finance and provided with related capacity building opportunities.

The Case Studies relate the stories of some of the women who have received training and grants to start up their business. They showcase how a small investment can make an extraordinary difference to the lives of the families. Most of them have succeeded to the point of earning an income good enough to meet their basic needs and pit aside a small amount of savings on a regular basis thereby allowing them to start rebuilding a more stable base for their family. More importantly, the self-belief and respect shown by the wider community grows alongside their enterprise.

The Seed Money Support Fund covers emergencies when no other recourse can be found. It may be used for the education of children, religious festivals, marriage ceremonies, medicine, for meeting basic needs during periods of unemployment, etc. on condition that it is paid back whenever the borrowers can raise income from other sources.

This seed money is maintained by a Committee of beneficiaries, (working on similar lines to a local Credit Union in the UK) along with an appointed Coordinator from the FORD Trust and set up as a Revolving Fund System. It takes the form of an interest free repayable loan of Rs. 100 to Rs. 1000 per beneficiary. Rather than obtaining a loan from local loan sharks villagers now have a viable alternative and again links with our aims of ‘helping to break the cycle of dependency’.

Seed Money Support

The Seed Money Support Fund covers emergencies when no other recourse can be found. It may be used for the education of children, religious festivals, marriage ceremonies, medicine, for meeting basic needs during periods of unemployment, etc. on condition that it is paid back whenever the borrowers can raise income from other sources.

This seed money is maintained by a Committee of beneficiaries, (working on similar lines to a local Credit Union in the UK) along with an appointed Coordinator from the FORD Trust and set up as a Revolving Fund System. It takes the form of an interest free repayable loan of Rs. 100 to Rs. 1000 per beneficiary. We are supporting up to 20 families through this initiative. Ultimately we are providing an alternative option to vulnerable members of society seeking financial assistance in times of dire need. Rather than obtaining a loan from local loan sharks villagers now have a viable alternative and again links with our aims of ‘helping to break the cycle of dependency’.