Day 3: A Visit to the Village

March 25th, 2009 by megan

After a couple of days spent hanging out at the Community Center, I was ready to get out and meet the people of Mattampally. I had eagerly awaited this day, March 5th, because I would be able to meet the Women’s Cooperative members and see our micro-financing in action. As the micro-enterprise coordinator for Hearts’ Cry, you can imagine my excitement! (I hope.)

Not the best photo, but these were the first women that I met!

Many of the village women go to the chili fields at dawn for daily work, so we headed out at 5:30 am to meet them at their homes and shops.  Thanks to the enormous, and slightly intimidating turkey living right outside my window, 5 AM seemed like a fine time to wake up. (Pictures to come!) But, even without his morning serenade, I would have eagerly woken up to visit these women. I was on my way to meet many of the 200+ women who make up our Women’s Self-Help or Women’s Cooperative groups, and I was excited.

For the past three years these women have been pooling their savings and loan donations to lend within their groups (10-12 women each). They meet monthly to collect interest, loan payments and savings and to distribute new loans. Remarkably, we have not had a single default on a loan! Every single one of the small business loans given by Hearts’ Cry and the cooperatives in the past 3 years has been paid back in full plus interest (1.5% to 5%). And imagine, most of these women have little more than a 3rd or 4th grade education and they are running their own businesses and doing their own accounting!

It was remarkable to see how hard each of these women have worked to maintain their businesses while working in the fields, raising children and sometimes even caring for sick or injured husbands. I knew there was a reason that we work with women! You can see their  strength and hear their pride and new-found self respect when they tell their life stories and speak of their businesses. It was very empowering to witness the change that something so small as a herd of goats, a small soda shop, or a water buffalo has brought these women.

As Wilfred explained; in the past 3 years, the changes in the village are visible and obvious. The women have greater self-respect and a greater understanding of long-term consequences. They are learning the value of education and the skills to better their financial situations. They take better care of their homes and are more watchful of their children. So many of the changes in the village and in the lives (and personalities) of the women arise out of being self-reliant business or livestock owners and from having fulfilling work and responsibility.

Ramana milking. Water buffalo milk makes the best tea!

This is micro-finance in action, and, in a sense, the key word is micro. The businesses and loans are small, but the lasting affect on the lives and personalities of the entrepreneurs is huge! Water buffaloes, for example, are highly sought after livestock. It really takes 2-3 buffalo to have a consistently profitable business, but one buffalo at least ensures that the family gets calcium for the 5-7 months of milking time per calf. (I had assumed the milking time was longer, but apparently my FFA knowledge doesn’t apply to water buffalo.)

Some women have just one buffalo; which they buy pregnant or with a new calf, milk as long as they are able, then either sell the calf and buy a new milking cow or breed the cow again. Water buffaloes are expensive and require a substantial amount of fodder, but the calcium they provide and the profit from the sale of the milk is well worth it. Additionally, the women can continue to work (and earn) in the fields during the day. Buffaloes are a hot commodity, and I saw about 100 that day! So, as the hours passed, I was ready for a change.

And change would come. As the morning went on, I met several of our sponsored students and began to hear their stories and to see the lives of struggle that their families lead. I met little Aasma who has seizures, and though they are controlled by medicine, she struggles to keep up at school. I met 2 children with hunchbacks, two who are unable to speak, several with brain injuries, one blind little girl who never went to school, one deaf child, and the list goes on. The disabilities are too many to name. It seemed as if every other home we visited had been affected by disability, disease and premature death. It was really devastating, and as the morning went on and I really got to know the lives of the people in Mattampally, my heart sunk. The reality of poverty and of the ever-presence of disease and lingering death became too much.

After a few short hours I was mentally exhausted, slightly heartbroken and much in need of some quiet time to process my new found understanding (a luxury, I know). I had honestly thought that I had seen poverty in Rajasthan, but for whatever reason, I have never understood poverty in the way that I do now.

Poverty is waking up every morning and making the decision to take your children to the fields to work instead of sending them to school. Poverty is killing the laying hen for dinner, instead of waiting for the eggs to come. Poverty is hoping for sons and abandoning your daughters. Poverty is filling your belly with rice and a pinch of something spicy, and calling breakfast (and lunch). Poverty is Father George’s phrase, ‘the factories bring life and take life,’ (referring to the 10 cement factories surrounding the village that provide jobs but pump toxins into the water and dust into the air.) Poverty in Mattampally so much more real and terrible than anything that I’ve seen before.

I went back to the Community Center feeling hopeless, and as if the reality of the situation was just too large and too painful to even comprehend, let alone work to change. My mind raced. I felt miniscule, helpless, unqualified and unequipped to take on such dire poverty and pain. And, maybe I am. But, now, several days and many experiences later, I’ve realized a few things: 1. Poverty can be worse. And it is worse in the SC (scheduled/untouchable caste) colony (Day 8). 2. The people of Mattampally have hope, so my pity and self-loathing was unnecessary. And, 3. So much of the hope and the struggle towards a brighter life lies in the women of Mattampally who work day and night for their children and families. These women are the heart, soul and hope of their communities and are passing on a new legacy of pride, self-confidence, and self-improvement to their children. I feel blessed to have met them.

Hope.

Tags: Change, Hearts' Cry, Hope, India, Mattampally, Micro-enterprise, Micro-finance, Micro-Loans, Poverty, Women

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