Help Women in India Start Small Businesses
|
Updates from the Field:
Updates from the Field (or Progress Reports) on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.com by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
|
Keep Up-to-Date
 Subscribe to "Updates from the Field" by E-Mail
 Subscribe to "Updates from the Field" by RSS Feed
Index of Updates from the Field
Why Trickle Up focuses on women
By Jennifer Pope - Communications Associate, March 06, 2007 10:55 AM
Why do women make up 70% of all poor people in the world? Trickle Up’s latest newsletter explains why many of our programs are geared towards women in places like West Bengal, India.
Click on the link below to read more about our initiatives and entrepreneur stories:
Links:
Improving Lives in India
By Jennifer Pope - Communications Associate, December 15, 2006 06:27 PM
A Trickle Up success story…
Before Jogendra Prasad and his wife received their Trickle Up grant, they leased and farmed their own land and found financially unsteady work as agricultural laborers. But with funds and training from Trickle Up they were able to open their own restaurant. They rented space near a transportation hub for $4.50, built a structure for $34, and bought a table and chairs. Jogendra’s wife taught him to cook, and he prepares the chicken and fried fish on order. From the beginning, the restaurant was a success.
Many of the customers are rickshaw and bus drivers whom the Prasads allow to eat on credit. Though the Prasads are illiterate, they have no trouble managing these accounts themselves - without losing any money. The two now make between $34 and $55 per month, and – having attended Trickle Up training sessions on how best to invest their profits – have recently purchased more tables and chairs for the restaurant so that they can accommodate more diners. The couple can now afford to send their son and daughter, who previously attended government institutions, to private school. And they are putting about $2.25 per month into savings.
The couple plans to use the next installment of their Trickle Up grant to buy utensils and more tables and chairs. “We are even considering taking out a loan – which we have never done before – to expand our business,” says Jogendra.
---
Trickle Up collaborates with grassroots organizations working in India’s poorest states, providing seed capital grants and training to individuals to help them start businesses.
With a field office in Kolkata, Trickle Up helped start or expand 1,834 businesses in 2006 (18,531 since 1979) in India alone. 97% of these entrepreneurs reported that their Trickle Up business became their main source of income. Our partner agencies are currently working to identify 2,500 more of the poorest individuals in the region.
Improving Lives in India
By Jennifer Pope - Communications Associate, January 03, 2007 08:33 PM
Although India has recently received media attention due to the IT boom and job outsourcing, growth and development have been largely confined to the south and west of the country. Trickle Up focuses its work in some of India’s poorest states in the east.
Our field office in Kolkata oversees the work of 19 local partner agencies, which help Trickle Up implement its program. Partners already provide other valuable services to the communities they serve, depending on their area of focus. One partner in Orissa, for example, helps hone the handicraft skills of tribal women, while a partner in Kolkata addresses child labor issues, helping families keep children in school.
In West Bengal, Trickle Up is piloting an exciting project with support from the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, a division of the World Bank. Working with a local organization, Trickle up will provide business and vocational training and seed capital grants to 300 entrepreneurs. With one-on-one staff support, entrepreneurs will deposit regularly in savings groups. After eighteen months to two years, they will be eligible to graduate to a microlending program to further expand their businesses.
|
