BSS - CLIENT SUCCESS STORY

Uma

BSS Client Since: 2000
Age: 29; married
Children: Two sons, 10 and 12 years old
Location: Karnataka, India
Loan History: 6th loan; Rs $385
Business: Tailor

Before joining BSS, Uma was an educated woman with few outlets for her talents. Uma completed the 12th grade, but never sat for her final exams as her marriage was already arranged at that time. She was not unhappy, but she wished for more.

When Uma decided to become a tailor to supplement her family’s income, she turned to BSS. With the BSS loans she received, Uma bought a sewing machine and opened her tailor shop. Since then, she’s taken out and paid back, on time and in full, five additional loans—the last one for more than $350. She currently makes about $35/month in profit from her business and is able to send her children to a good government school.

While her income makes life easier, Uma is also thankful for the relationships she’s built with other clients of BSS. She says, “Before I joined BSS, I was a housewife and spent most of my time inside my home. Now my work keeps me very busy and I am able to meet and gather together with other members.”

Uma now helps other women gain the time management, savings and business skills she learned from her experiences. She leads a women’s empowerment group called Stree Shakti (Women Power), and helps women work together on income generating activities and save as a group—they’re currently making sambhar powder, a common spice used to make a traditional lentil dish, in bulk.

Now that Uma and her husband have purchased a larger home (one with a cemented roof, kitchen, bathroom, dining room and two bedrooms—quite different than their previous one-bedroom house with attached kitchen and outside bathroom), Uma hopes to turn her old house into a sewing school. With her hard work and BSS’s help, she knows that this dream can become a reality. She says, “For the future, I have no fears. Only hope.”