Chitra, 33, comes from the village Thiyagasamuthiram. At the age of 17, her parents arranged her marriage, without consulting her, to 32-year-old Dhanapaul. Her husband, to the neglect of his own wife and children, has dedicated himself and his earnings to his six sisters. He has taken out loans at an exorbitant rate for all six of their weddings. In order to help him pay off the loans, Chitra and her children, and even Dhanapaul, often went without meals. Now, at 52 Dahanpaul has chronic stomach pain, can barely eat, and is permanently ill. Fortunately, their son in 9th standard and daughter in 7th standard have been receiving free lunch and school books at their government school. Presently, six people — her husband’s elderly parents, her sickly husband, and two children — depend on Chitra for daily basic needs such as food, clothing, school supplies, and medical care. Chitra’s mud and thatch house has no electricity or toilet facility. She gets drinking water from a public tap and cooks her food using firewood.
Late last year, Chitra met SHWET staff member Jeyalakshmi and collected information about SHWET women’s Self Help Groups (SHGs). With restored hope, she recruited 19 ladies in need of support through micro credit. All the villagers had watched and admired her hard work and sincerity in caring for her sickly husband and the children. Her SHG members looked up to her and unanimously selected her as head of the group. They followed her lead in developing their reputations as worthy and reliable loan candidates.
After three months, Jeyalakshmi recommended the group for Prosperity Rings micro credit support. Chitra took a loan of Rs. 7000 to initiate a petty shop business. Petty shops are roadside stalls with limited products, which the village people normally buy. She started the shop on one corner of her house, and she is rotating the money in the shop, earning Rs. 150 a day (about $3). Chitra wants to expand her enterprise with her second loan and is confident that she would then be able to give treatment to her husband, educate her two children, and provide a “basic life.”
She still goes for agricultural labor work to supplement her funds, but she says through tears that after trials, hardship, sufferings, and torment in her married life, now SHWET, her group members, and Prosperity Rings have trusted her to initiate a business. “The bright side of my life has started.”
ACCOUNT |
DATES |
GRANT(S) |
LOANS (approx) |
FUND GROWTH (est) |
Inactive Accts |
2001-08 |
$62,224 |
Last calc 2008 |
Last calc 2008 |
Anisha (PR) |
2005-11 |
$46,035 |
1,125 |
$168,800 |
Anisha (Rotary) |
2007 |
$45,000 |
1,570 |
$275,700 |
PAT |
2009-10 |
$10,000 |
367 |
$80,700 |
SHWET |
2011 |
$6,500 |
47 |
$6,500 |
SRIA |
2011 |
$4,500 |
19 |
$4,500 |
Totals |
|
$174,259 |
3,128 |
$536,200 |
 |
Plus over 45K still revolving with former partners still in business. |
|
||
|
|
Plus over $750K still revolving with former partners still in business. |
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We formerly estimated but now have exact figures from ANISHA, PAT, SHWET, and SRIA.
In recognition that over time there have been up to 20% fluctuations in the value of the Indian Rupee, as compared to the US Dollar, some Fund Growth figures are stated as estimates, though consistent with past years’ reporting. Further, we have terminated SPANDANA, CReSA, and SRI (see Inactive Accounts above) as active partners for a variety of reasons and are no longer receiving yearly reports. The results of these ongoing accounts and loans have not been updated since 2008.
This year proved to be one of the most satisfying and gratifying when evaluated by Prosperity Ring’s grants to our partners and their borrowers. What a momentous celebration it is for borrowers who were eagerly awaiting their loan! In addition to donations from our valued individual supporters, much appreciated grants from the Rotary Clubs of Bellevue and Seattle contributed toward these funds raised by Prosperity Rings.
During this sixth year that we have worked with ANISHA*, Prosperity Rings gave two grants — one in February and one in May — totaling $13,535 and yielding 75 loans. Some loans were second and third ones to entrepreneurs who were successful in growing their businesses — achievements we love to see. Padma and Radha Rukkumani each set up a grocery; Baby Rani created a typing center. Sherin expanded her tuition center, while Maheswari engaged in producing idols. Sundarambal set herself up with a portable ironing cart, and Usharani put in a 1 Rupee coin telephone to rent. Jute-bag-making employed many in the tailoring business thanks to a hot market for these items. Some of the sales items included honey, eggs, uniforms, and a variety of snacks made by the ladies. ANISHA’S loans vary from Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000 to be repaid in 10 to 15 months.
On May 11, Prosperity Rings transferred its first grant to a new partner, SRIA,* in the amount of $4,500. SRIA had demonstrated its need by submitting a list of borrowers who were trained and ready to receive loans the minute funds were made available. The ladies and the staff were ecstatic. Since Prosperity Rings is dedicated to granting funds to facilitating partners in India who are too small to receive loans from banks and need seed money, SRIA was a perfect match for us. Not only do they work with very poor women in rural areas of Tamil Nadu not reached by other micro credit organizations, but they have also rustled up and utilized sources of training for their borrowers to produce unique products. Many of their staff are dedicated volunteers for lack of funding. The Prosperity Rings grant funded 19 loans for enterprises from the production of chili chicken, sanitary napkins, and photography to sales of groundnut seed, lime powder, footwear, vegetables, bricks and bedcovers, to name a few. SRIA wrote, “The ladies are grateful and hardworking in their enterprises to fulfill their dreams of sending their children to school and fitting their homes out with latrines, gas cookers and stainless vessels.”
SHWET* also received funding from Prosperity Rings for the first time this year, in two tranches totaling $6,500. Forty-seven borrowers were given loans of Rs 7,000 each (approximately $150) with a repayment term of 10 months. This is the usual amount and term of a first loan for all our partners. Among the borrowers, Rani, Chitra, and Pushpam each established a tiffin business (light box lunches); Maheshwari decided on a dry goods store specializing in Vattal (bitter gourd spice). Indhira had the good plan of renting out cooking and serving vessels for festivals, since many households cannot afford them. S. Sutha now sells plastic articles; Vijaya and S. Jeyasree grind and sell rice flour. A great many borrowers initiated a tailoring business or began raising milk cows and goats.
Each year Prosperity Rings is able to provide new insights for our partners to enhance the enterprises of their borrowers so that they can expand their markets, improve on their products and services, and diversify. The ladies become enthusiastic about being leaders in improving living conditions and motivating even non borrowers to educate children, feed nutritious food to their families and practice sanitary living habits.
In Seattle, Prosperity Rings will be hosting bridge competitions in order to raise funds for micro credit loans to our borrowers. Who would have thought that playing bridge could result in enhancing the life of an Indian Dalit and her family who exist in severe poverty? Anyone in the Seattle area wishing to participate in these events may learn more by emailing prosperityrings@gmail.com.
Anywhere in the world, a person or group might host a game, any kind of game or event — Mahjong, bingo, sports, cook-off — to help raise funds for Prosperity Rings. You and your group will receive a case study and photograph for each borrower whose enterprise you have made possible. We would be most grateful for your contribution.
For years, Prosperity Rings has urged our partners in India to train their borrowers in a marketable skill. At last, Anisha Microfin Association has initiated a tailoring training program. It has identified 50 poor adolescent girls from seven hamlets of the backward and Dalit community. These adolescent girls are school dropouts only because their school education was discontinued due to poverty and lack of opportunity. These girls want to acquire an entrepreneurial skill by attending tailoring training, so that they can become self reliant. Without the ability to support themselves, they become a family burden. They would be vulnerable to early marriage, as well as becoming bonded laborers in the fields.
Responding to their desire, Anisha Microfin Association has started a skill building training centre with one technical instructor in the village of Mutharasanallu. To fulfill the dreams of these 50 poor girls, Anisha has initiated a six-month dress making training unit. People's Solidarity Association (PSA), the parent organization of ANISHA, has provided its building for the training unit, along with sewing, embroidery, and jute bag stitching machines. The training starts everyday at 9:30 a.m and continues till 5:30 p.m. In the training class, the instructor teaches them about dress making, drawing, cutting, hand embroidery, and machine embroidery designing. The trainees also undertake training in making different varieties of jute bags, a growing alternative to plastic bags. A major portion of the time will be allocated for production.
After the successful completion of the training, each trainee will be presented a course certificate. Anisha will also provide them with a micro-loan to buy a sewing machine and its accessories, to enable them to generate income for themselves. They will be able to make a foray into dress designing, dress making, and jute bag making.
Several garment factories in the area are always seeking tailors. As an employee of a company, they can bring in a starting salary of Rs 5000, along with food and accommodation. The trained candidates, if self-employed, can also earn a monthly income of Rs 7000-Rs 9000 during festival seasons of Deeepavali, Christmas, Ramzan, Pongal, Bakrid, and New Year.
During the six months, the young girls will acquire much-needed confidence, life skills coaching, and 49 friends who will provide support and companionship.
Prosperity Rings takes pride in the fact that our borrowers learn to become active leaders in their communities and take charge of making improvements happen that no one else has had the courage and confidence to launch.
SRIA responded to the appeal of Prosperity Rings’ borrowers of Muthampattiyarkottam Village to provide a source of drinking water for its residents. SRIA planned this project proposal together with the villagers and micro-credit women members, in order to submit it to Prosperity Rings, who might be able to mobilize required financial assistance from Bellevue Rotary Club. The unique feature of this project is that the beneficiaries will not only contribute free labor toward the soil excavation work but — after a recent meeting with the beneficiaries and the community leaders — each family also came forward to contribute Rs 1000 (approximately $21, more than a week’s pay for most) towards implementation of the project.
Muthampattiyarkottam Village in situated in a dry, backward region of Trichy District. There are 25 households with 140 people living in this village — 78 men, 64 women, 21 young children, and 8 widows. The main occupation of the men is construction. Some of the women also work as construction laborers; some work as agricultural laborers. Most of the houses are made of thatch and mud walls. None of the houses have a toilet. Much worse, there is no drinking water facility. The Government’s three bore wells are no longer yielding water. The village people must spend much time collecting water from the neighboring village, Valvanthi, which is 800 meters away. The elderly people must depend on others for their water.
The only way out seemed to be to construct an overhead water storage tank with ten thousand liter capacity. A host of abstracts and estimates of materials, labor, and budget have been drawn up by SRIA, a local engineer, and a licensed surveyor. The village youth and local leaders will take responsibility for the maintenance of the overhead tank. The funds for executing the water project will be monitored by a local village committee, including representatives of SRIA and the Rotary Club of Thuraiyur Golden City.
The water project will provide the villagers with enough potable water during all seasons. The health, environmental and economic status of the people will be improved. With the help and guidance of the Rotary club of Thuraiyur Golden City, Prosperity Rings, and the Bellevue Rotary Club, SRIA believes in the successful completion of the project. The borrowers say, “First we want to tackle the drinking water problem, then we will plan for a toilet facility.”
Nancy Pasternak, Founder and President of Prosperity Rings and alumna of Kappa Kappa Gamma (Iota,) was honored to receive the 2011 Mary Maxwell Gates Award for contributions, inspirations, and volunteerism.
Mary Maxwell Gates, the late wife of Bill Gates, Sr., and mother of Bill Gates, was a member of UW’s Beta Pi KKG chapter. As she went about her innumerable volunteer endeavors, she stepped back modestly, not wishing to receive accolades. Mary Gates and her award represent “volunteerism at its best.”
In the news, India seems to be progressing to become a real power player. Our borrowers can tell you a different story. Let us tell you about some obstacles our borrowers confront.
Most of them are “Dalits,” “outcasts,” or “untouchables. “About 1500BC, the Aryans conquered the Dravidians of Central India and divided their society into separate castes. A person born into one caste could never change castes nor mix with members of other castes. The untouchables, or Dalits, were the outcasts, or people beyond the Hindu caste system. Their jobs or habits involved “polluting activities” — even the sight of untouchables was thought to be polluting. The Caste System has been illegal in India for more than 50 years, but the Dalits continue to have fewer educational and employment opportunities than Indians from even the lowest castes. “Branded as impure from the moment of birth, one in six Indians* lives —and suffers — at the bottom of the Hindu caste system.” National Geographic, June 2003. *160 million
In India, the payment of a dowry was prohibited in 1961 under Indian civil law and subsequent laws enacted to make it easier for the wife, who must bring the dowry, to seek redress from potential harassment by the husband’s family. A criminal penalty is supposedly exacted for taking or giving a dowry. However the tradition of dowry and the hosting of expensive weddings as a symbol of socio/economic status appears to be irretrievably embedded in the culture. The amount of dowry money being spent by families has contributed to viewing daughters as a burden and consequent devaluation of women’s lives. In order to side step the heavy burden of an expensive dowry, many parents arrange marriages of their very young daughters
1) to older men needing wives who leave those daughters widowed at a young age, or 2) to relatives who do not require a high dowry since both parties are available to fill the bill or fulfill obligations. This creates two of the next obstacles that many women face.
Partly due to the disparity in ages of arranged marriages, there are more than 40 million widows in India — 10 percent of the country’s female population. Hindu widows are faced with a battery of societal taboos. Traditionally when a man dies, his widow is expected to renounce all earthly pleasures. Widows should no longer look attractive, and can no longer wear jewelry or use sindhoor — the red powder women wear in their parted hair and on their foreheads to denote their married status.
In some instances washer men will not wash their clothes; shopkeepers will not sell items to them. They are not be allowed to participate in any rituals, In addition a widow is considered inauspicious, so she cannot be present at the rituals and celebrations that form such an integral part of Indian life, such as marriage or birth ceremonies. In some cases even her shadow is considered polluting or offensive to “cleaner members of society.” Men who are widowed can marry as many times as they wish. Widowed women are not allowed to remarry.
Intermarriage arranged with cousins, uncles, half brothers and sisters, to save on dowry and wedding expenses, results all too often in a nightmare of coping with handicapped and disabled offspring for the parents in those marriages.
In India, discriminatory attitudes towards women have existed for generations and affect women over their lifetime. Although the constitution of India has granted women equal rights, gender disparities definitely remain, especially in rural areas where Prosperity Rings serves its borrowers. There are limited opportunities for women to access resources such as education, health care services and job training. Even their own parents devalue a daughter to the point of denying access to resources and arranging a distasteful marriage for their own advantage. Women do not own property under their own names and usually do not have any inheritance rights to obtain a share of parental property. Women must convince their husbands and fight for position in the work force. This has prevented Indian women from achieving a higher standard of living.
Parents often arrange their child’s marriage without his or her knowledge. Almost always the two have never met. When a bride marries, she generally is carried off to live with the groom and his family. She can be treated as a slave to the entire family, having to cook, clean, wash and iron, and whatever else needs to be done, under the iron fist of her mother-in-law (who probably had to suffer the same treatment as a bride). She may sleep on the floor at the foot of her husband’s bed. She may also endure beatings, and if her dowry is not given in a timely and substantial manner, may even be “accidentally eliminated” so that her husband can acquire a better dowry.
Unhealthy conditions confront the majority of women. Most women cook indoors with wood or propane gas, a daily health hazard. Many have minimal access to potable water. Few have latrines in or near their homes. Electricity for operating equipment such as sewing or grinding machines is unreliable if they have it at all. Almost all politicians are men who give little credence or importance to women’s priorities.
As Prosperity Rings visits groups of borrowers, these topics are discussed in depth so that the women can act as catalysts for change by the power of educating themselves and others.
On the occasion of the 2009 Prosperity Rings visit to India, the Rotary Club of Tiruchy and Prosperity Rings partner ANISHA gathered the beneficiaries of a Matching Grant of $45,000 to demonstrate their entrepreneurial successes. Over 60 ladies were beaming as they displayed the products involved in their businesses —businesses that were made possible with micro credit loans from the Matching Grant funds.
John Peter, CEO of the loan facilitating agency ANISHA, explained the working of the SHG (self help groups) in the Tiruchy area and highlighted the benefits derived by the ladies, who are now able to support their families. Many of the ladies spoke passionately and powerfully about how the loans had improved their condition, and their desires to expand and diversify their business ventures. Tiruchy Rotarians will provide free training to the beneficiaries through the existing ROTECH Institute.
The Rotary Matching Grant was made possible through the efforts of Rotarian and Prosperity Rings President Nancy Pasternak. It was launched in 2007 as a combined effort of the Rotary Clubs of Bellevue and Seattle and the Rotary Club of Tiruchy and distributed $45,000 to 311 rural women. The 100% repayment has enabled the funds to revolve and assist 1,277 women beneficiaries, to the tune of $158,000 today.
All parties involved are ecstatic about the overwhelming increase in the value of these funds given as micro credit loans and the ability to empower more and more women as entrepreneurs. A second Rotary Matching Grant of $52,000 is waiting for approval in 2011 and will finance new loans for ANISHA borrowers.
Prosperity Rings is pleased to inform you that the "father" of our micro credit work won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007. "Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded won the Nobel Peace Prize for their pioneering use of tiny, seemingly insignificant loans-microcredit-to lift millions out of poverty," wrote the Associated Press on October 13, 2006.
In 1974 Yunus had a "eureka moment." The economics professor met Sufia Begum, a 21-year-old mother of three, who was weaving bamboo stools with calloused fingers. Upon his inquiry, she told him she borrowed five taka (nine cents) for the bamboo for each stool and gave back all but two cents to the lender. Thus began Yunus' concept of giving very small loans to the poor people of Bangladesh.
Across the world, his micro lending concept has now given women, mostly, who could not qualify for low-interest loans, an opportunity to buy milking animals, raise chickens, sew garments — in short, establish their own business — and thus raise their status and feed and educate their families. Dr. Yunus said he will use his share of the $1.4 million to create a business of his own, producing low-cost, high nutrition food for the poor, and will also create an eye hospital for the poor of Bangladesh.
Dr. Yunus is pictured here with colleague Prosperity Rings President Nancy Pasternak on the occasion of their meeting in Dubai in March 2007. Prosperity Rings is proud that its India partners replicate the grass roots level concepts of the Grameen Banking system.
