Empowering India's Rural Poor through Poultry

Dear Friend of Shivia

It’s always a pleasure to report news of positive progress from Shivia and this month is no exception.  With this report we are updating you with two key things:

• The launch of our newest location for livelihood development in West Bengal.
• The before and after effect: comparing our new location with developments at our first location, established in 2011.

The launch of operations in Kolaghat

In December 2014, we launched our Poultry Development Service (PDS) in the rural and impoverished villages of Kolaghat, approximately 60kms south west of Kolkata.  Since the launch, we have registered 158 new home farmers, 70% of whom are women.  Most of the women farmers are between the ages of 25 and 40 with a young family.  They are attracted to the poultry enterprise as they are aware that they can increase their household income from their own backyard.  Without exception, their main motivation for starting their poultry enterprise is to earn money to buy the uniform, shoes and books that will allow their children to attend the local school.  It can also pay for the school bus to make sure they have the means of getting there.

In starting a new location for our livelihood services programme, we are also providing new job opportunities for local people to work as our Livelihood Service Providers (LSPs) to deliver the programme to the farmers. In Kolaghat we are already employing 7 LSPs, two of whom are women.  We always work alongside an established local NGO to help us recruit the field staff and, in this case, we are partnering with Amar Seva Sangha, led by Professor B. Samata, an organisation which provides local welfare services such as housing for destitute families, rural healthcare and rehabilitation of juvenile offenders. They also give us advice about which families are most in need and would benefit from the PDS.

Impact of our Livelihood Services Programme – the before and after effect

As our fourth location develops we are able to compare the livelihoods of our newest home farmers with our more established ones.  Our first location for the PDS was Kanchrapara, a town 50kms north of Kolkata.  We started registering home farmers in the rural villages there in 2011 and now we have 2,948 families benefitting from the programme, each with their own poultry enterprise.  Many families keep their chickens for egg production for their own consumption and to sell at the local market.  Many others have grown their enterprise into a significant business, breeding their birds to increase their stock and selling their produce at a healthy profit.  Many have even started a second enterprise with the profits from their initial poultry enterprise. 

There are, of course, many hundreds of different stories from individual home farmers that we could retell, but here are just some examples of how the Shivia poultry enterprise is significantly and permanently changing lives:

• Supriya has used her profits to open a small tea stall in her village.
• Nirmala invested in two goat kids, which have grown up and produced six kids of their own!
• Gita continues to raise poultry but has also invested in a sewing machine, which she uses to make and mend clothes.
• Somrai has grown his poultry farm to over 100 birds.  He has taught his sons how to raise chickens and now they are starting their own poultry enterprise.
• Parvati has come to us as she intends to develop her own hatchery so she can become a supplier of Shivia chicks for the toolkits.

We hope with this latest report we have been able to show you what an enormous impact your donations to Shivia are making on the ground.  Not only are you helping very poor families create better lives for themselves in the immediate term but you are also helping to create some real entrepreneurs!

Thank you again for supporting Shivia.

Links:

• http://www.shivia.com