Lalduhsaki and Group – Retail (Aizawl, Mizoram, India)
Lalduhsaki, a 44 year-old divorcee lives with her daughter in Aizawl. She crafts dry-flowers for decorative purposes and makes her living. She joined Rachel group along with four other women member and all hails from Aizawl, which is one of the North-Eastern states in India. All group members are engaged in different income generating activity. They had shown great zeal in their work and effort. The group members conduct monthly meetings and makes plan for their development and progress.
Lalduhsaki makes wreaths, wall-hanging, flower bunch, etc. The finished items are supplied to the women vendors in the town market as she does not own a shop. Her skill has earned her fame and she receives lots of orders from nearby towns as well. The insufficient supply of dry-flower and its unit curbs her ability to deliver the demands of her customers. The earning is not sufficient enough to purchase the supplies as she is the sole bread winner and her income is small. She hardly managed a few savings which is again uses for other expense like school admissions and church contributions. She usually gets capital amount from local lenders at high interest in order to purchase the required material for dry-flower crafting. When she gets the return she pays back the debt and the cycle continues without affording a saving for the business to flourish and function smoothly.
She shares she will purchase various dry-flowers in abundance, crafts them with her own design and sell them for profit. Hopeful and delighted to work on her dream, Lalduhsaki says, she will also repay the loan in time. The rest of the group members are engaged in Grocery shop, Selling Fish, Dry-Flower crafting and selling Dry-Tobacco leaves. They are seeking a loan of rs 75,000 together for their respective businesses
