Inspirational Stories!
Vasantha kumari
Meet Vasanthakumari our Rural Women Edupreneur, from Nanjanagudu,Mysuru District, Karnataka Vasanthakumari is a woman with grit and determination. Her work is inspired by her exposure to Mahila Samakhya awareness programmes and by an activist friend. She is a trained nurse who has been working in the field of seed conservation and organic farming for the past 13 years. Despite a marginalised background and challenging family circumstances, Vasantha did not stop pursuing her dreams of working in her community and addressing malnutrition, especially among women. Vasantha joined the Plustrust fellowship programme in September 2020 to address this issue through her Kitchen Garden Project. She said, “Women in rural areas suffer from malnutrition as they are so busy working in the fields and are the last to eat in their houses. Even the food is not nutritious as vegetables are expensive. Growing vegetables in their backyard will help them to tackle the problem of food scarcity and they will have nutritious food to eat.” She says, “In the olden days we had a variety of vegetables, whose seeds were environment and agriculture friendly since they required minimum water and fertilizers and could be grown in all seasons.
However, the hybrid seeds produced by the companies consume large amounts of water and fertilizers and can’t be stored. I want to break this dependency in my community and bring back the culture of local seed conservation and organic farming. Vasantha has been working on her project in Jyotigowdanapura, Chamarajanagar district. She has given orientation workshops to 50 families and educated them about organic farming and demonstrated farming techniques. After the workshop, the families were provided with organic seeds which they could sow in their own kitchen gardens at home. She also home visits to make sure they are following proper techniques. To continue her work, she plans to link her project with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme. Under this scheme, the families will be eligible to receive a one–time amount of Rs. 2800/- to start their kitchen gardens. She says that she heard about the Plustrust Fellowship Programme through her colleague Kaveri who works with her at Amritabhoomi. Vasantha said, “The fellowship programme has helped me to establish my identity and given me recognition in the community. I am also grateful to my mentor who guided me in the entire planning process for my project and helped me hone my skills in report writing. It allowed me to expand my work and create awareness about seed conservation and receive financial help as well”. Currently, she is working with an NGO called Amritabhoomi International Center for Sustainable Development and is also collaborating with them on her Kitchen Garden Project. The NGO is involved in providing organic seeds to the families she has trained. In 5 years, Vasantha says she wants to bring about change at the cluster or Taluka level and convince the people to grow their own food through a local seed bank. This she feels will also address the problem of malnutrition.
Manju Jain
Meet Manju Jain, a single mother and an entrepreneur, from Sarada, Udaipur, Rajasthan. She has been making eco-friendly banana fibre sanitary pads and selling it to women in her community since 2017. Manju was introduced to the idea of making these sanitary pads by her erstwhile employer and a Plustrust alumnus Ms Komal Roy. Komal was already making pads in Sarada, and this inspired Manju to join her and learn how to make them. Manju was extremely shy, so marketing and selling the product was a challenge for her. Komal supported Manju in selling the pads to women in her community. Manju’s journey started as a cook at Piramal Foundation. There Manju got acquainted with Ashwani Tiwari who was the programme lead. “My interactions with Manju were very frequent and I observed that she had the qualities and skills of an entrepreneur.”, said Ashwani. “So, I suggested that she join the Plustrust Fellowship programme,” he added. Manju joined the programme in 2019 in Udaipur, to grow personally and professionally and expand her venture. During the 6 months of the fellowship, Manju received training from Rajasthan Grameen Aajeevika Vikas Parishad (RAJEEVIKA) and got an opportunity to train SHGs to make these pads.
She also sold the pads to friends and family and women within her community. The fellowship boosted her self-confidence, taught her networking skills and advocated the use of her product in her community. Thanks to her mentor Ashwani Tiwari, her brand Mayra, is now selling on Punya, an e-commerce platform and will soon be available on Flipkart as well.
Parvati Chauhan
Grit and determination are what sets some people apart. However, that alone is not always enough to accomplish one’s dreams. The support of one’s family plays an equally important role. This could not be truer than in the case of our fellow Parvati. Meet Parvati Chouhan our Return to Roots fellow from Madhya Pradesh a determined young woman who faced many odds to achieve her dreams. Parvati belongs to a family with very modest means. But this did not deter the family who encouraged her to pursue her studies further. With a great deal of support especially from her mother and sister she completed her B.ED. Prior to joining the Plustrust fellowship, she tutored kids in a village called Scindia, near Bandana. She says” Although, I got only Rs. 3000/-, I took the trouble to commute that far and teach the tribal kids because I was determined to study and wanted to support my sister’s education. Parvati’s passion to teach kids made her join the fellowship programme in September 2020. “I learnt about the fellowship through my sister who works with an NGO “. Now, I am teaching the kids in my own village under my project Pehel Pustakalaya.” Parvati who belongs to the Korku community, says “This is not a well-off community.
They believe that educating and teaching their children is of no value. They prefer that their kids help them on the farms rather than go to school. “In my initiative, Pehel Pustakalaya, I want to use this passion and experience to teach the kids in my community”. She said, “I hope that my work will encourage parents to send their children to school and give their children an education to ensure a better future for them”. Currently, she is teaching about 40 young kids of the Korku community basic Arithmetic and Hindi. She uses materials available in their surrounding as teaching aids. Parvati teaches the kids in a space provided by her uncle in the village. Now she says, “people are becoming aware about the benefits their kids are getting after joining the centre and the parents notice that their children are learning. Hence, she plans to charge a small fee to sustain her centre. In the long run, she hopes to have a space of her own and teach older kids as well. “The fellowship and the guidance she received from her mentor, instilled a sense of confidence and courage and helped her develop personally and professionally. It also provided her with a platform to use her skills towards becoming a changemaker in her society” she said.
Meera Kumari
For Meera, the Plustrust fellowship offers an opportunity to develop professionally, deepening her repertoire of interventions for gender equality. Strong, highly motivated and determined, Meera has been working in the gender inequality field for several years now. She started her professional journey in 1996 with Mahila Samakhya under the Jyoti Mahila Samakhya Federation, an organization that works on gender issues in the Muzaffarpur district of Bihar. Meera, Muzaffarpur district, Bihar is interested to develop herself professionally, expand her expertise and use her skills to work with children on issues of gender inequality – “a topic that is never spoken about or taught in schools,” she said Samta Ke Liya Ek Pahal, is an initiative to experiment with the idea of teaching and discussing this issue with children at an early age and see what impact it can create.
It also involves experiment with models of communication that can be used with kids – like games, using the internet, books and stories to create a powerful impact. Since, October 2020, she has been working with children at a centre run by i-Saksham Education and Learning Foundation. She continues to work in this centre and build her association with the children here and improve the model. In the future, she plans to collaborat with other educational institutions and talk to children on such issues. Meera says that she notices a slight change in the attitudes of the boys in the community after she began to interact with them and speak to them about gender inequality. They are beginning to understand the importance of a women’s role, responsibility and there is a certain atmosphere of respect towards them that is visible. She hopes as they grow older, they will be more sensitive about these issues and can educate others and bring about a change. “I will continue to work in this centre and build my association with the children here and improve my model. In the future, I look forward to collaborating with other educational institutions and talk to children on such issues,” she said. The fellowship helped her to plan and execute her idea and provided her with the leadership and guidance required to make her dream come true.