ESDO-SAMHATI Support Makes a Difference
“Feroza’s family is now almost completely self-sufficient”

Village - Charani Sherpur      
Union - Betgari
Upazilla - Gangachara
District – Rangpur
Time line: January 2004 – December 2006

ESDO’s training in alternative income generation and self-reliance is providing skills and knowledge to rural communities in ESDO’s Eco-Villages. The training is a capacity building initiative which gives participants an understanding of business, marketing and finance. This project has sustainable results as seen through many community members who successfully started their own businesses.  This gives them a sense of empowerment and determination to take decisions about their own lives.

Feroza Begum is one beneficiary of SAMHATI funded ESDO’s self-reliance program. Prior to receiving ESDO’s training, Feroza was completely dependant on her husband to provide for the family, and as he is a farmer, her family’s subsistence depended completely on favourable yearly weather patterns. If drought or flood occurred in any one year, the family struggled until the next harvest season. However, the ESDO-SAMHATI program has created options for Feroza and provided her an opportunity to open her own grocery shop – a business which secures income for her and her family.

Feroza is 36 years old and has been a member of ESDO-SAMHATI for 4 years. She and her husband (50 years old) have two sons and a daughter.  The eldest daughter is married and is 19.  Both her sons are Studying – one is in class 3, and the other in class 6. ESDO-SAMHATI has given a loan to Feroza in 3 instalments as part of a ‘matching grant’ scheme: 1) Tk 3000, 2) Tk 7000, and 3) Tk 10,000. Feroza had initially opened her shop 2 years before she received the ESDO-SAMHATI matching grant, however within a year she was forced to close it due to a lack of collateral for maintenance. In this time she had no money and no choice but to help her husband in the field. After receiving ESDO-SAMHATI’s instalments, Feroza has kept her shop open for 5 years now and, due to ESDO’s training she is successful in managing her business. Part of her loan was allocated to pay for her daughter’s wedding and she is also budgeting appropriately to provide education for her two sons.  The small profit she receives daily through selling grocery items helps her to manage these funds.
 
Feroza’s family is now almost completely self-sufficient. Her husband owns 4 acres of land and grows tobacco, rice and vegetables. Feroza also maintains a homestead vegetable garden (beans, pumpkin etc) which she began growing after ESDO’s capacity building training on vegetable or kitchen gardening.  Together Feroza and her husband grow all their vegetables, and only need to supplement this with fish and meat bought from the market. 

Feroza acknowledges that ESDO-SAMHATI’s loan was very much useful to her and her family. She is now planning for the future and would like to buy a cow which she states is a sustainable way to earn money.  Needless to say, she has learnt this during the training sessions!