The creation of Self Help Groups promotes solidarity within communities and provides support to the villagers in order to face daily challenges. These groups, for women, help them to develop their professional skills as well as providing entrepreneurial development trainings. Thus they develop their autonomy and can start an income-generating activity.
Since the project began, nearly 12 Self Help Groups have been formed with 159 women aged 21-50 years. These women have benefited from trainings that emphasise business planning and entrepreneurial skills, and include topics such as identification of a good business, feasibility analysis, business planning and management, as well as marketing techniques. Thanks to microfinance grants, 35 Family-based enterprises have come up in various fields of activities (embroidery, flower sales, goat rearing, milch animal, small shops, tailoring, tiffin and weaving). In addition, more than half of these women received vocational training to develop skills such as tailoring, beautician, handicraft, etc.
Self Help groups meetings are held in a democratic, inclusive, and transparent manner where all women actively are invited to participate in debate and decision making. In each group, a woman leader is chosen and all the members decide together on the group bylaws and codes of conduct.
These groups increase women’s empowerment and promote gender equality. Networking within a group raises the woman’s self confidence and self esteem, and broadens her powerbase financially, leading to an improvment of her social status. Thus children will benefit of better conditions for development, health and education. Thanks to trainings, Shanta, a mother in the village of Sankarapuram created her own job. Now, she sells home made meals. She has taken a rightful place in the family, as she says: “Before my husband would take decisions alone, now he waits for me to be back to decide together. “
