Ms. LakpaDoma Sherpa, lives with her family in the Ravangala area of South Sikkim. It’s more than two years that she joined a Sarala promoted group. Lakpa had a dream to become an entrepreneur and wishes to see her extended business in a marketplace. Presently she runs vegetable vending business at her locality. Before availing a loan from Sarala, she had faced many hurdles as getting credit with minimum paper work and less time was a distant dream. While continuing her effort to look for accessible finance, Lakpa came to know about Sarala and its services from one of her friends in the neighborhood. They didn’t take much of a time and got in touch with the field officer to know the loan process. All of them as Lakpa says were so much surprised and happy when they came to know about such simple credit granting process. After thoroughly understanding the group concept, she along with other women from her village formed a group and in her first cycle she got a sanction of INR 20,000. Lakpa used the money in buying different vegetables for her open vending shop, which she has been running profitably for the last two years. She is into her 2nd loan cycle and willing to continue her relationship with Sarala in future. Lakpa says “Sarala is different from other MFIs because of the dealing, behaviour and trust which we have built over last two years and that will continue further too”.

Ms. Asma Khatun, runs a grocery shop and lives with a family of 4 – her husband and 2 children in Saharsa, Bihar. Due to some reasons she couldn’t complete her studies and decided that she will concentrate on doing business. After she got married, she started supporting her husband in his agricultural activities. However, the income from the field was not sufficient enough to lead a standard living. Many a times, as she describes during the interaction with one of Sarala employees, she would thought of doing an extra source of income but she would lose hope without the required capital. During that period, Asma came to know about microfinancing activities of Sarala in one of their regular evening gatherings. She found the perspectives interesting and without any delay she joined a group and took a loan of INR 20,000, which she invested in opening a grocery shop. Both her husband and herself devoted their time in filling the shelves with the items having the local demand. Gradually she could realise that the income from the shop is undoubtedly helping them in saving some extra amount of cash after repaying debts and spending household expenses. Soon after she paid all the instalments, she took her 2nd loan and subsequently 3rd loan from Sarala. She studied the business trend and came to know that she is doing more than double the business during the time of festivities. Hence Asma stocked more of those products which are generally in high demand at different times of festivals. And with her friendly behaviour she could earn a constant flow of regular clientele who never miss to buy from her shop. Asma says, she would never forget the support out of microfinance that had helped her to overcome from that precarious situation of the past. Besides the financial education provided by the field staff of Sarala has immensely helped her in understanding her household budgeting, operating her bank account as well.

A customized shopping bag-maker from Banberia, Nadia (West Bengal), Ms. Sanjida Khatun is one of Sarala’s prospering clients. Sanjida is a lady of all-round roles – she is a wife, mother, business-woman and artist. Sanjida out of her own interest learned stitching & knitting some years back. She wanted to do something using her skills and training in that field, but couldn’t think beyond due to her family’s financial condition. However, her friend let her know about Sarala and the easy access as well as hassle-free process for availing credit. Sanjida says “I was hesitating to move forward to take a stand for my family, but at that exact time Sarala came into my life and opened all the closed doors to start working to be a bread-winner for my family, I will never ever forget the help provided to me by Sarala”.
As soon she received the 1st loan, she bought a sewing machine and started her sewing work at her home, and she even bought a motor-operated sewing machine with the amount she got in her 2nd loan. Her husband was working out of state prior to the business she initiated. And looking at the growing demand for her hand-crafted bags, her husband didn’t go back to the city for work and rather supported her in the business. She said “Sarala made her capable to see the dreams and to fulfil it. I can see the change in our life with my husband not going out of town for work, beside that we could witness a sizeable increase in our monthly income also”

Ms. Asma Bibi, wife of Mr. Juran Sheikh, a daily wage earner, runs a grocery-cum-vegetables shop with her husband. The current shop once was a distant dream for both of them as they were struggling to save money and buy a variety of stocks for the shop. They were hesitant to go to a bank knowing there will be a long process and waiting period. Asma was not someone to stop in midway, and continued with her effort of finding approachable ways to arrange funds for their shop. While doing so she was able to know about microfinance, group concept and lending methodology at her locality. She joined a group called Mani under Sarala’s Dhuburi branch in Assam and went through the group nurturing process. Asma took her 1st loan of INR 20,000 and bought some of the basic necessarygrocery items. Gradually the revenue from the business grew, they could add more stocks and even started accommodating vegetables at their shop. She is into her 2nd cycle loan of INR 25,000 and she feels grateful that they were able to get the services of Sarala as they could establish a good business of their own. She says “having an income source from own businesses has a separate charm.” As both of them are involved in the business day and night, hence they are able to save the extra manpower costs as well, which then positively impacts their monthly incomes. All through the period Asma was able to learn different financial aspects from the literacy drives of Sarala and could persuade his husband to save more – for the benefit of their business, education of their children and leading a peaceful life.

Ms. Jamuna Barman, lives with her family at Bongaigaon, Assam. It’s more than three years that she joined in one of the groups nurtured and financed by Sarala.Jamuna always wanted to do something on her own so that she can take some burden of her husband whose income was just sufficient to tightly manage the household expenses. Sometimes it was not enough and they had to borrow from family and relatives. She says that “I didn’t have the required documents and time to go to a bank and apply for a small token of loan to start some economic activities. However, I had that zeal and appetite that landed me at one of my friend’s home who was at that time a member of a group availing micro-credit for undertaking small business activities. So, I thought why should I wait, and after understanding the concept I joined in a group, received training on money management and took a loan of INR 20,000 for the 1st instance to start a small grocery shop, that houses vegetables also.” Since then Jamuna hasn’t looked back, she has devoted her time and energy towards the business and that paid off quite well for her and her family. She has taken her 3rd cycle loan to purchase more stocks for her shop, as demands for items in her shop is increasing day by day. She thanks Sarala for the timely assistance and spreading the knowledge on household budgeting as well as savings that helped her taking some wise decisions wrt to managing her funds.