Story of the year
Economic Development
Section
Shamsabad
Mr. Mohammad Ali Detho is 85 years
old. He lives in Qabool Pur in HDF
unit 3 in Shamsabad. One unit in HDF
terminology is equal to 1000 households.
At this time HDF is working in 5 units
in Shamsabad, which means it is serving
5000 households. Generally people
of this age are not active and are
left out of the many activities of
life. But Mr. Detho has been running
a grocery shop in that village for
the past 23 years. He had a very limited
inventory in his store before HDF
started its program in the area.
“I
heard about HDF credit program that
was being provided to business people.
I thought that I can benefit from
this program”, he said before
he became a member of the local DO,
called Al-Sakhi Tanzeem.
In HDF projects, the community members
are organized into local volunteer
organizations. These organizations
are called Development Organizations
(DO). The people choose a name for
their organization. There are separate
men and women Development Organizations.
Most of the HDF programs are managed
and implemented by these organizations.
This is part of our philosophy of
“Helping People Help Themselves”
rather than making them dependent
on HDF. So the loans are approved
and then implemented and managed by
them, with the help of HDF staff.
In November 2001 he applied for a
loan of Rs. 10,000 for to his DO which
was approved. He thanked God for this
opportunity. He added more items to
his shop and his profit margin improved.
He is one of those members who pay
their loan installment without ever
being asked. He would go to the post
office before the first of the month
to pay his installment. Besides paying
his loan installment and family expenses
he was also saving a little on the
side.
In October 2002 he was diagnosed
with having kidney stones. The operation
was going to cost almost Rs. 30,000.
By that time he had saved about Rs.
20,000. which was still not enough
to meet the medical bills. So he had
to borrow the extra money to meet
the deficit. On top of that his business
suffered a major loss due his absence
for 3 months.
But he applied for another loan of
Rs. 16,000 and reactivated his business.
His business has improved tremendously.
He earned Rs. 70,000 from his first
loan. Not only did he pay the loan
back and saved some money but bought
some new household items.
He has developed a strategy where
he has permanent customer who pay
him on a monthly basis. He is a shining
example of the success of the HDF
economic program.
