Our Impact
SUCCESS STORIES
Expandus Capital Limited joined hands with Buzz Women to ensure low-income women become drivers of prosperity – for their destiny, families and communities.
Suguna is a 32-year-old entrepreneur residing in the village of Abalagurki in Karnataka. Before she started her own business, Suguna used to run a provision store with her husband.
Sugana was intrigued after hearing about a training programme for women from the local Anganwadi teacher on how women can improve their businesses by teaching them on how to save money.The Self-Shakti programme is backed by CAPRI, which provides Buzz Women with the Buzz Bus that is a fully-equipped mobile classroom which reaches the hamlets of the district and at the doorstep of women.
The programme is the first step of intervention that equips women with the basics of financial management, entrepreneurship, self-confidence, and community involvement. Suguna already had a micro enterprise where she would sell sarees, earning a monthly income of ₹4,000. The training gave her insight and she was able to raise ₹6,000 to ₹7,000 per month and save ₹1,500 every month.
Sugana then started to invest her savings into the business in order to expand her enterprise.Today, without any financial support or loan from anymore, she has scaled up her business to also include readymade shirts in her shop. She has also started to travel to Bangalore every month in order to purchase sarees in bulk from one of the biggest saree markets. Sugana has not just been able to stabilise her income but also dream bigger.
SEIZING OPPORTUNITY, SEIZING SUCCESS
SEIZING OPPORTUNITY, SEIZING SUCCESS
Expandus Capital Limited has associated with Seva Mandir, a Rajasthan-based NGO, to not only provide aid, but also deliver a long-term sustainable and social transformation. Since its inception, the fundamental principle for Seve Mandir has been is rural development. It has been able to accomplish its goals by strengthening communities of villagers through self-governance.
Coming from a poor financial background, Raj Kumara Joshi lives with her husband, a fruit vendor and their three children in Udaipur, earning around ₹5000 every month. Before associating with Seva Mandir and Sadhna, Raj Kumara was a housewife like many other women of the village. This wasn’t the first organisation she visited. In 2012, she joined Neemuch Mata SHG with a saving of ₹300 per month.
Initially, even saving ₹300 seemed difficult, as she had no source of income and was dependent on her husband. After some time, she started working as an accountant for an SHG cluster. During a group meeting, she became familiar with Sadhna – a women handicraft enterprise.This was a good opportunity for her to work from home. She practised patchwork as well as embroidery for three months and started working with other women artisans.
But she received a meagre amount and no recognition for her work. Thus, she decided to work with Sadhna as an artisan. Now, not only she is recognised for her work, but she is also able to contribute to the family’s vincome and soon saved money for the monthly share of SHG.As her confidence has grown, she is taking up more responsibility. She has become a cluster accountant and is handling accounts of 13 SHGs.
Apart from this, she has evolved as a group leader with Sadhna gaining better skill sets and higher income. Through her savings and employment, she is helping her family with loans. She took a major loan of ₹50,000 for construction of a house and ₹20, 000 for social expenses. By paying off those loans with sheer grit, she proved herself as a good wife, mother and leader.
NEW LIFE, NEW BEGINNINGS
Expandus Capital Limited in association with Entrepreneurs Associate has helped to build an entrepreneurial spirit within the residents of rural Nagaland and other North-Eastern states.
The organisation works passionately to promote entrepreneurship and develop sustainable livelihoods to increase participation among local communities for social equity and harmony.
Alenge, a proud mother of six children – 3 boys and 3 girls – is a street vendor selling XXXXX at the APMC shed, TCP Gate in Kohima. Two of her children are married, while another two work with her at the stall while the last two have dropped out of school and are dependent on her.
Her journey to become a vendor began, after her alcoholic and abusive husband kicked her out of her house.
Even though she pursued a similar occupation at her native in Dimapur and Peren district, she didn’t find success until she moved to Kohima. Now, she is extremely happy selling at the APMC shed and is grateful to have received support from Entrepreneurs Associate and its partners.
Recently, Alenge received her ₹2,000 bonus cheque and is proud to have crossed ₹10,000 in savings.
FIRST TO ATTEND, FIRST TO SUCCEED
Expandus Capital Limited has collaborated with Entrepreneurs Associate to inculcate an entrepreneurial mindset among the citizens of rural North-Eastern states. The organisation is committed to nurture and strengthen the entrepreneurial aspirations of individuals and communities. That is possible by utilising resources that are within their reach and encourage entrepreneurs to take the lead to push their communities forward.
Living in the village of Toulazouma, Lietsope Lasuh sits at the Supermarket Complex regularly to supports her family. As a mother of six children, she mostly sells the products that her family grows on the small plot of land behind her house. Her unemployed husband does his bit by working on the family farm and rearing poultry as well as pigs regularly. Just like the many residents of the village, Lietsope also sells her farm yields in the bazaars across Dimapur.
Just like the many residents of the village, Lietsope also sells her farm yields in the bazaars across Dimapur. And just like her, some of the residents of Dimapur decided to become Entrepreneur Associate members, after attending a training for street vendors in Dimapur.
Lietsope was one of the first attendees of the Uplifting Women Street Vendor’s programme and has been instrumental in roping many other vendors for the training sessions.
Through the training and mentoring sessions, she got excited about learning the importance of business management and financial planning. Her saving have reached Rs 14,000 and she was due to receive a bonus of Rs 2,000 from Expandus Capital Limited, just before the Covid lockdown was imposed.
She has not started selling at the bazaar for fear of the virus, but her current priority is to ensure her children’s education. Hopefully, she will be able to do that soon.
FINDING HELP,
FINDING HOPE
Expandus Capital Limited’s associations with Entrepreneurs Associate has ensured that rural India can thrive through sustainable livelihoods while being able to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship among the local communities for social equity and harmony.
After attending one of its training sessions in Phek, Shevotsolu from Khuza Village learnt about Entrepreneurs Associate. Along with her husband, she works on their own terrace and jhum fields, selling most of what they produce.
Earning about ₹3,000 to ₹4,000 per week, she regularly comes to the Friday bazaar to sell her farm yields. But this was hardly enough for her family. In fact, she faced health issues and could not seek proper medical treatment.
When she attended the training programme, she shared her ordeal and was then referred to our health partners, the K&T Foundation in Kohima. They provided her with a complete health check and free medicines. After receiving the medical attention, her health has improved a lot.
THE RIGHT APTITUDE, THE RIGHT ATTITUDE I
Expandus Capital Limited is associated with Seva Kutir to help children of rural India gain a better quality of education. One of its ways to encourage children to go to schools is by providing them with nutritious meals.
Before joining Seva Kutir, Priya was very weak academically. She was quite irregular in attending her government school. Even though she was in Grade 8, she could only solve mathematic problems up till Grade 2.
She couldn’t write or speak correctly in Hindi. She could not even write her name in English. Now, she can read and write not only in her own Gondi tribal dialect, but also in Hindi and English.
Her parents live in a remote tribal village and earn a living from labour work to support the family. They do not have any land. They earn a living by grazing the cattle of other farmers.
Depending on the season, they also rely on the forest for their livelihood. Priya’s school is around 1 km away from her home. She walks to the school and also crosses the small bridge over the river.
When Priya entered Seva Kutir, she wasn’t very healthy. She was too thin and used to fall sick frequently. She didn’t brush her teeth daily.
But now Priya’s health has also improved a lot, as she is now getting adequate and nutritious meals and is learnings about daily hygiene.
Living in a remote tribal village, Priya hesitated to interact with strangers and people who are not from her village. But now, she meets strangers with confidence. In her own words, she is now fearless. Her story proves what wonders adequate support can do to a child’s life.
THE RIGHT APTITUDE, THE RIGHT ATTITUDE II
He likes to read stories about great people in Amar Chitra Katha that are kept in the Seva Kutir. His story shows the huge potential of children in remote, tribal areas can have once they get quality education.
Expandus Capital Limited is associated with Seva Kutir to help children of rural India gain a better quality of education. One of its ways to encourage children to go to schools is by providing them with nutritious meals.
Karan lives in a remote tribal village. Most of the people in his village including his parents are small-scale farmers. The village is nearby a forest. They are also dependent on the forest for their livelihood.
For instance, they collect the Mahua fruit in the Mahua season and sell it and during the Tendu Patta season, they collect Tendu Patta and sell it to a contractor.
Karan was too thin before joining Seva Kutir.He could not play sports as he used to feel tired all the time. But after eating healthy food in the Seva Kutir, he feels fit now and his weight has also increased. Karan’s school is around 3.5 kms far from his home. He is able to walk the distance without any problems.
As per Karan’s teachers, he is very honest and very well behaved. He is a very good student academically.
STITCHING SUCCESS, STITCHING A NEW DESTINY
Expandus Capital Limited has been promoting Women Entrepreneurial Network (WEN) under its WISE initiative (Women’s Integrated and Synergistic Empowerment) in Maheshwar since 2019. Its goal is to nurture the innate potentials and talents of women with modest economic backgrounds to gain entrepreneurial skills.
The network aims at mobilising women into small collectives, focusing on identifying their skills, so that they can have access to markets and other resources.
Thus, when Shradha Pandit, a famous and highly-loved Zumba instructor in Indore planned to be a part of a beauty pageant by Visionara,
She decided to approach Kala Sutr, a WISE entrepreneurial wing to help her customise her costumes. In order to beat the competition, Kala Sutr along with Shradha enthusiastically selected various dresses, fabrics and saree designs in Maheshwar and Indore. But our relationship didn’t end there.
Two women from Kala Sutr also agreed to come to Indore to stitch clothes for the competition.They were guided by a trainer who directed them on how to stitch pageant costumes. This would also help the women learn stitch showroom attires, while garnering different stitching skills and help them increase their talents.
Along with her attires, Shradha was also provided with handcrafted jewellery designed by Radhe Radhe SHG in Maheshwar, which was also promoted by WISE. One of our members, Chandrakanta stitched a blazer for the first time, learning a new style for blouse and pants. Another member, Tamanna who dreamt of opening her own boutique was keen to learn new stitching patterns and designs like western attires and cocktail dresses.