Empowering India's Rural Poor through Poultry

Our report this time features three inspirational women who are working hard to change lives for the better…

The first of our three women is Sonali (pictured right) who started her poultry enterprise with us in 2016 when her husband fell seriously ill with tuberculosis.  He was unable to work while he was ill, so suddenly there was no income for the family, which includes their two teenage children and Sonali’s parents-in-law.  Despite challenging times for the whole family, Sonali managed to make ends meet with the help of our Poultry Development Services programme when she started getting a regular income from raising chickens and selling the produce at the local market. She is now successfully managing her small business enterprise on her own.  Here’s what she told us when we visited in February:

"Thank you for saving me and my family with your wonderful programme and such high-quality training. I am now confident to take this forward myself."

The second woman in the story is Majida (pictured left).  She is one of our most experienced Livelihood Service Providers - part of our team of locally recruited staff who deliver the programme to our beneficiaries.  Majida was with Sonali from the very start, back in 2016, when she arrived with the first basket of ten chicks and began the training programme, teaching Sonali everything she needed to know about how to raise healthy chickens and market the produce.

Majida says that Sonali is an extremely hard working and confident lady. "Even in the worst of circumstances she stood up, held her head high and learned everything about poultry farming with full dedication."

Majida is extremely proud of her and considers Sonali as one of the most successful farmers among all her other trainees. "Sonali is an iron lady. She knew how to save her family and completed the journey with a strong will and determination. She even managed to save her husband by arranging for his treatment with the money earned from her poultry enterprise".

Our third inspirational woman is Chandrani Banerjee, pictured here in the middle of the group.  Chandrani is our Head of Livelihood Programmes.  Each week she travels from Kolkata to the villages where we are working to monitor the impact of our Poultry Development Services programme.  She talks to Majida and the other members of our team about their work, listening to their stories of success but also making a note of any challenges they may be facing so we can make changes to the programme if necessary.  Chandrani also talks to as many farmers as possible, gathering valuable feedback from them to make sure the programme is delivering the impact we are aiming for.  Over the nine years Chandrani has been working with Shivia she has collected thousands of stories from our wonderful women farmers who are determined to make a change to provide a brighter future for their families. Here’s what she told us about Sonali:

“Sonali is an enterprising woman who is an example for others. Her success has created a ripple effect in the entire neighbourhood and many women have registered for our programme as a result. Sonali smiles and takes credit for her success with both pride and humility. She is a delight to her proud family".  

Of course we wouldn't be telling these stories if it wasn't for the support of generous donors like you who provide the funds so that we can deliver this programme.  Each £15 donation could pay for one of our life-changing poultry toolkits and set someone like Sonali on the path a better future.

Thank you from the team at Shivia.