Human Development Foundation

Saving Is Gaining

By YesPakistan.com Staff Writer

When HDF began its program in Sharru, the people of the village had never experienced anything like it. Although Sharru is only 10 kilometers from the HDF office, it is a backwards area without the comforts that many people enjoy. The villagers, for example, are forced to share their very houses with livestock. In this atmosphere, the people suffer not only from poverty, but from ignorance.

The villagers of Sharru, upon finding out about HDF, jumped at the opportunity to improve their lives. The women of the village were especially excited to participate in HDF’s program. However, their fathers, brothers, and husbands refused, out of ignorance, to let the women form a Development Organization of their own. These women did not give up, and eventually their persistence paid off when they convinced the men of their right to have an active role in changing their own lives. The women, operating under the Sharru DO, have already begun generation income in a short period of eight months, and have saved approximately Rs. 10,000. The women of Sharru have proved that with determination and hard work, anything is possible.

Sarweeda is an exemplary member of the DO. The wife of a farmer, she and her family were barely able to survive on a farmer’s meager income. Sarweeda took action. She prepared a business plan that would enable her to buy a buffalo and sell the milk, providing a steady stream of income for her family. It was a sound plan, but the only problem was that she could not afford the initial cost of a buffalo. Sarweeda’s fellow DO members gathered and collectively decided to loan the Rs. 10,000 savings to her.

Now Sarweeda is selling 6 L of the buffalo milk each day, earning a monthly income of anywhere from Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 35,000. She also benefited from garment training, which provides a supplement to her income. With the money she earns, she can now afford to send her eight children, one boy and seven girls, to the TMF School. In addition to this, she pays for all the routine expenses of day to day life and saves her husband’s earnings in DO capital formation.

Successful and fully satisfied with the performance of HDF, Sarweeda is only one of many women whose lives have been changed by HDF’s program.

Date/Time Last Modified: 1/22/2003 1:10:18 PM

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