Why this Project is Important

Potential Long Term Impact

Our School aims to improve the long-run economic status of women and their families through new business opportunities enhanced through entrepreneurial skills. We expect to graduate approximately 200 students in the School's 2nd year of operation.

Project Message

“All my life I have dug wells in the sun to earn my wages. For the first time in my life I am sitting in shelter and making cotton bags and selling them after taking the course in the business school.
- Shaila Mane, A student from the bag making course, Vaduj.

Who is Running This Project

Contact

Chetna Sinha,
President
Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank Ltd. Mhaswad
Tal. Mann Dist.- Satara
Mhaswad, Maharashtra Postal Code 415509
India
+91-02373-270660
Email:

Project Sponsor

Ashoka Innovators for the Public

Organization

Learn more about Mann Vikas Samajik Sanstha and the project team.

Mann Vikas Samajik Sanstha's Current Projects on GlobalGiving

Help Rural Indian Women Save for Education

Bicycles for Schoolgirls in Rural India

First Community Radio by Women in Rural India

Where this Project is Located

Country

This project is located in India and can also be found under Education.

For more information about India, read the Human Development Report on India or the Wikipedia entry for India.

When this Project was Updated

Last Updated

This project was last updated on February 29, 2008.

Date Added to GlobalGiving

This project was added to the GlobalGiving project catalog on August 31, 2007.

Latest Update from the Field

A Business School Success

By Manndeshi - The Story of Bainabai Sagar, February 29, 2008 05:05 PM

Bainabai, who is forty-five years old, overcame an early life of tragedy and challenges to become one of Mhaswad’s most driven and respected micro entrepreneurs.

Married at the age of nine to a heavily drinking man who had never held a steady job, Bainabai faced abuse at the hands of her mother-in-law and endured the harsh treatment of her husband’s family. She finally moved to Bombay with her husband and children at the age of fifteen, but struggled in the city to provide for her children, who were continually sick and unhealthy.

She finally made the decision to return to Mhaswad, and left her husband to begin a new life with her children. Since, she has risen from wage labor work to owning her own chai stall business, leading SHG groups, and using Mann Deshi bank services to enhance her business and livelihood.

Bainabai will say that for the first time in her life, she feels truly happy. The confidence and respectability she has gained, as well as the range of business skills such as understanding interest rates, negotiating financial transactions and marketing SHG groups has added enormously to her life. As a businesswoman who has risen from difficult circumstances, she is a figure of respect in the community, and someone whose advice is often sought by other women interested in microfinance.

She still faces certain struggles; her husband returns from Bombay every six months and demands money and upsets her children. She has also faced difficulty with the municipality and has been forced to relocate her stall several times. Despite it all, she remains optimistic about her future, and is happy to finally be sending her youngest daughter to school with a full lunch box and high quality clothes. Her daughter is in 12th standard, an amazing achievement, and Bainabai has high hopes for her higher education.


Attachments:

• Bainabai began her own chai stall after taking Business School c

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