Help Rural Women Gain Essential Business Skills

Dear Mann Deshi Supporters,

Meet Mangal, from Natepute village :

Background: Her family business is to make limestone & sell it in the weekly markets of villages which was the only income source. She has a son & a daughter. Her children couldn’t complete education due to poverty.  

Business Condition: She didn’t have market and capital to expand her business. Even the income coming from the business was not sufficient for her to meet the needs of her family.   

B-school’s Support: One day, she attended a meeting of B-school from Mann Deshi where Branch coordinator informed her about business for women, its expansion, aid & loan for the business. Mangal wasn’t sure if she could get a support from the Mann Deshi as she has not get support from any institutions before.  When Mangal attended financial literacy & business development workshops from B-school, she shared her business problems i.e. capital and market linkages.   Immediately, B-school coordinator connected her with the Mann Deshi field officer, informed her about loan procedure & its low interest rate. Before, Mangal was lending money for business from money lenders but now after B-school recommendation Mangal got a loan of Rs.10000 in the month of September from Mann Deshi Bank.

Earlier, she was selling the limestone in one weekly market. But Mann Deshi helped her by advertising her product by connecting her with the people involved in construction, color & painters. It helped Mangal to expand the business & her economical condition started to improve. She could pay the loan installments regularly which encouraged her to demand the multiple loans.  

Mangal’s confidence is raised and she borrowed 4 loans but didn’t even realize about it. Earlier, she was borrowing money from money lenders with hefty interest and was unable to repay it regularly. Sometime, she was paying only interest for many months. The burden of the loan was too high to expand the business.  

But, after understanding the importance of business expansion and debt management in Mann Deshi B-school, she could repay the loan installments regularly & the most important thing is she doesn’t have to go to the bank for demanding & repaying the loan as bank comes to her workplace for the same. It saved her time & money.  Mangal could expand her business & gain good profit in the business.

Outcome:

Monthly income of Mangal is increased from Rs.6000 to 8000

Her Market area is expanded from 1 to 5

She is shifted from moneylenders to bank

Growth from retail to wholesale business

Mann Deshi is grateful to its donors for their regular support.

Links:

• How vocational education can change lives for all
• TEDxGateway 2014

Dear Mann Deshi Supporters,

"A woman who raised sheep and goats came to the Mann Deshi bank wanting a loan to buy a mobile phone so she could talk to her children when she was away working. She also asked us to show her how to operate the phone. This led to the launch of a business school programme to teach women in a day-long workshop how to operate mobile phones, how to buy minutes and other basic skills like using calculators.

Mann Deshi also introduced a Deshi MBA programme for these rural entrepreneurs to provide training in such areas as cash management, self-management and mentorship.

And because the women cannot travel, we established a business school bus that travels to them.

It is so important to change attitudes towards these impoverished women. This is why we set up a community radio station, so women can share experiences; some become quite famous and the result is that families often become more supportive.

Since started in 2006, Mann Deshi B-school has been reached to100,000 illiterate women in remote, rural parts of Maharashtra touching over 500,000 lives indirectly. Business School has provided financial literacy and business management training to over 100,000 and created +60,000 successful entrepreneurs.  In 2014, Mann Deshi B-school aim to reach 30,000 women."

This is wholly because of support of Mann Deshi's Donors.

Thank you very much !