Help Women in India Start Small Businesses

We've seen time and again how empowering one woman has a ripple effect on those around her--in particular the children for whom she can create a better future. Trickle Up's West Bengal program is helping women who live on less than $1 a day build sustainable livelihoods. With the increased income from their microenterprises, participants can improve their families' quality of life in truly significant ways, such as feeding their family three meals a day instead of two, buying shoes for their children and sheets to sleep on at night.

Srimati Sardar, pictured, recently told us that since her participation in the Trickle Up program, she's had more influence in family decision-making. As a result, her husband is less wasteful with his money, and they are now choosing to invest their money in their children's future. It is Srimati who decides how to use the money from her Trickle Up microenterprise raising goats, and she is focusing on ways to provide a sustainable and improved quality of life for her family by reinvesting in rice paddy cultivation and saving for her children's future.

For Srimati, Trickle Up's support gave her the opportunity to take her first steps out of poverty--for both herself and her family.

On October 15th of this year, the United Nations inaugurated the International Day of Rural Women to recognize "the critical role and contribution of rural women, including indigenous women, in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty."

At Trickle Up, we honor rural women and their role in leading their families on the first steps out of poverty. Many of the participants we target are from remote areas. Rashida Bibi's story is one example:

Surrounded by all of her kids - including her baby goats, Rachana, Sundari and Vudo - Rashida Bibi says, "Now we are in a much better situation, and don't have to starve. We can have better quantity and quality of food. Our children are going to school - and they are happy."

With support from Trickle Up, Rashida has taken remarkable steps out of the extreme poverty most people in her region endure. In West Bengal, where Rashida lives, the Ganges meets the Indian Ocean at the Sunderbans river delta. While the area boasts a wildlife sanctuary and the world's largest mangrove forest, poor villagers have little access to natural resources. Community needs - from sanitation to healthcare to literacy - remain largely unaddressed. Until recently, Rashida and her family skipped meals and often went to bed hungry.

One year after receiving Trickle Up seed capital, Rashida now manages a herd of nine goats, as well as a cow she shares with her neighbors, breeding them and selling their offspring for a profit. She also takes advantage of the monsoon season by cultivating fish for protein in a small pond. Through Trickle Up's training, Rashida learned to sign her name and count the money she earns. Now, her family also has access to a local health clinic and her children can attend school.

For women who grew up in remote areas and had few opportunities, the support Trickle Up provides means that they can help their families break cycles of poverty. Your support for our program in West Bengal is helping many other women like Rashida Bibi get their families started on the first steps out of poverty.

Why do women make up 70% of all poor people in the world? Trickle Up’s latest newsletter explains why many of our programs are geared towards women in places like West Bengal, India.

Click on the link below to read more about our initiatives and entrepreneur stories:

Links:

• Trickle Up Winter Newsletter