
And there on the hillside below her one-room thatched-roof cottage, she keeps her four goats. The first two were purchased with a loan she has repaid. She is fattening them for the Dashain festival, Nepal's biggest feast day.
Outside on her patio, a group of 19 women, who call themselves the Kurilo Women’s Society, sit on woven mats listening to her speak about the importance of savings. A few men and children sit huddled on the wall behind the group. The sun shines brightly, but it is cold on the mountain. Lal Maya proudly hands over her monthly savings to the group’s treasurer, her neighbor, who records the amount in a book: 50 Nepalese Rupees, around 75 cents. This is the average amount they save each month.
Lal Maya, 54, is an ethnic Tamang woman who lives with her husband and their 9 year-old son in Nuwakot, about an hour drive from Kathmandu. She and her husband migrated here a decade ago as day laborers. Their job was to build retaining walls rock-by-rock near the steep winding road they now live near.
One day, the contractor abandoned them owing them months of back pay. They were stranded. So they settled by the side of the road, taking other meagerly paying jobs to survive.
But life for Lal Maya is no longer about mere survival. For the last three years, Lal Maya and 19 other women in the Kurilo Women’s Society, a group supported by ASHA-Nepal, have been providing each other with small loans to invest in income-generating activities.
Standard microfinance institutions usually exclude membership to women over 50, considering them not able-bodied enough. Try telling that to Lal Maya! Her son, who was born with severe development delays, is completely dependent on her, as is her husband who was recently blinded by cataracts. Since the loan funds in Lal Maya’s group come completely from group members themselves, they set the rules; women like Lal Maya, who are the sole supporters of their families, are welcome to join.
The Kurilo Women’s Society also participated in ASHA’s sustainable agriculture training that includes free seeds and tree saplings to get members started. Their crop yields have been so good that they are able to eat more nutritiously and sell additional produce to a group of vendors who travel from Kathmandu. The women have also learned how to naturally preserve their own seeds, saving them costly treks to the city.
This year, the women pooled their money and purchased a plot of land. They requested, and received, a grant from the district council for a crop storage warehouse to facilitate wholesale marketing of their crops.
Lal Maya is longer dependent on an unscrupulous employer. She’s engaged in the community. She has more material wealth, better food, and is better equipped to take care of her family. And with each passing month, she becomes an ever-savvier businesswoman. As she sees it, Lal Maya’s crops are thriving, and so is she.
Lal Maya’s group is one of three groups in the Nuwakot region that were started with IDEX’s support. This year, two more groups are set to start their work.
Photo credit: Jan Stürmann.
Labels: ASHA, microcedit, Nepal
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