Malliga hails from KATHALOOR, a drought prone village in Pudukottai – District of Tamilnadu state in India. She and her husband Lakshmanan are agricultural workers just owning two acres of rain fed land. They have three girl children, the fist one completed her high school studies and could not continue her studies due to want of income. The second one is studying 11th std and the third one is studying 8th standard. Malliga earned Rs.40 per day and her husband Rs.80 per day. They owned a milch cow and by selling the milk they were able to earn Rs.50 per day. Fortunately Malliga lives in a small tiled house of her own. With this background she found it hard to make both ends meet, managing three meals a day and meeting her daughters school education and other basic needs.

It is at this moment “ANISHA” approached her and the womenfolk living in similar status in her locality and formed the savings and credit group in which 16 women were enrolled as members. They were motivated to make regular monthly savings. In due course Malliga took her first loan of Rs.10, 000 from ANISHA in the month of May 2005.She invested the money in buying another Milch Cow with the Calf. She made a plan with ANISHA to repay this loan in 20 monthly instalments.

This cow gave a better yield of milk 10litres a day and by selling it she was able to make an income of Rs.80 per day. She completed 20 instalments, making the asset become her own.

Malliga says that ANISHA’s support has definitely contributed to bring in rise in the family income and thereby improve her economic status. She further says that after completing the present loan she would take one more loan and buy another cow to further enhance the income and utilize it for her daughter’s education.

Busy JAITHUNBEE

Jaithunbee from Palakarai, Trichirapalli had rented a small space for a petty shop, but the scarce range of products did not attract many customers. With her meager earnings she was not able to neither provide for her family nor stock a range of products to increase her income. To her it was a God- sent opportunity when a representative of ANISHA invited the women in her locality to join a Savings and Credit Group. She took two collateral free loans from ANISHA, a first loan of Rs.4000 then a second loan of Rs.6000, and used the loan amount to increase her range of products so customers would find almost all their household requirements at her shop. She also installed two telephones with local call facilities and was able to attract a lot more customers throughout the day.
Being a small family venture Jaithunbee and her husband Safiyulla take turns to run the shop and now earn around Rs.200 per day. They have a 7yr old son studying in the 2nd std. Apart from her dreams of providing him a good education she hopes to build a house of her own. She is grateful to ANISHA for helping to make her dreams come true.