Empower deserted women and widows in rural India

When someone is blessed with lots of wealth and the person shares it with the less privileged, it can be said that this person is "large hearted".
When one's life is a test of providence and one's pockets are empty but still, one shares with others whatever one has than this is what really, "generosity" means.

Kamal as a person and the way she has led her life is a classic example of the above dictum. 

Not willing to live with an alcoholic husband, she deserted him soon after marriage. A young woman then, she came back to her parents, but to a life of penury.
Doing odd jobs with her mother and father,  the life was of subsistence for the family.
She knew a bit of sewing and joined a class run by Chetana-Vikas to hone her skills. Her machine was rickety but Kamal could manage a bit with the small income it offered.

Life had other plans.
Kamal had a sister who was married. she suddenly expired due to illness. Unfortunately the sister's husband abandoned the children. The children's faces tugged at Kamal's heart.
She took the two year old girl child and a six month old son of her sister under her wings and started taking care of them.
Life was really hard now for meeting the children's needs, an impending education cost plus her own families meager condition. But Kamal was not the one to lose heart.

Being a frail person, she could not work regularly in agricultural fields. But she took up whatever came up as an opportunity and slogged on forward with and for her extended family.
Succor came up in the form of a Self-Help Group formed in her village by Chetana-Vikas.
By and by as savings increased, she took periodic loans to repair her sewing machine and also started diversifying by keeping related accessories for sale.
Till now, small loans and its profit were helping her slowly improve their living condition.

It is here that the consistent support received from you,  offered us and the village SHG an opportunity to give Kamal a lump sum to start an independent business.

This one time large support of Rs.13,000 (US $ 194) enabled her to buy material for making incense sticks and and she started this work at her home with some of her Self Help Group friends. She could get a profit of Rs.10,000/- to 15,000/- (US $ 150 to 225) in the past year.
Kamal works hard and alongwith her friends goes from shop to shop in markets, from village to village to effect their sales.

The small profits have enabled her to repair her house and construct a room. She has managed to marry off the daughter. Kamal could also give a decent education to both the children.

It is the smile on Kamal's face which belies the life she has led. Alongwith her friends in the SHG, she is forever ready to help others in need, runs around for people and still manages to keep her own boat steady.
Life is looking up with the growing trade of incense sticks and a young boy by her side -  an abandoned boy who has turned into a strapping youth to help her build it further.
Like her incense sticks, Kamal spread fragrance in lives which had/have no hope. 

Our endeavor at Chetana-Vikas is not just to help women economically but also to help women find their inner strength and give wings to their efforts to find solutions.
With knowledge, awareness, a bit of resources and a rock solid social support makes them make the most and best of the opportunities offered.

Thank you for being co-travelers in this mission.

Our project is -
<http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/empower-deserted-women-and-widows-in-rural-india/,>.  

Can also know about us through FB Link.
<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chetana-Vikas/162861643736214.>

Thanks once again.

Niranjana
Project Leader