Mrs. Yashodha resides in Mysore, India with her family consisting of two daughters, one son, and her husband Mr. Ramesh. Ramesh is the head of the family and depends on dry land agriculture and his son works as a bar bender. The average monthly income of the family is around Rs. 6500/-.
She has been a member of the self help group (SHG), Sree Siddappajji Mahila Sangha, for 8 years. She attends SHG meetings regularly and conducts various activities to increase the member’s knowledge. Her saving is nearly 15,500/-, she has borrowed loans from the SHG five times, totaling Rs. 185000/-, for different purposes. Now her family economics are progressively improving.
Her family was collecting water from nearby houses (approximately 15-18 families) and sometimes from public water supply systems. Mrs. Yashodha faced a lot of problems in collecting water when she went to nearby houses. She had to wait long time to fetch the water and quarreled with neighbors. The same problems were encountered at the public water supply system. It is her daily routine to procure water; she was spending lot of time and energy on this activity.
Mrs. Yashodha could not believe it when the Sanghamithra Rural Financial Services and Water.org staff organized a one-day training program for the SHG members and explained the water and sanitation loan products. Sanghamithra staff motivated her to have an individual household connection (IHHC) installed at her doorstep. She took on a WaterCredit loan from SHG of Rs. 5000/-. Now she and her family have their own individual water connection right in front of their house.
She says that her family now has sufficient access to water regularly for their daily needs at their doorstep. She and her family members are very happy. She proudly said, “I am getting water from my own IHHC and I can concentrate on other work since I have more time.” She is happy to invite visitors over and shows them the tap connection. She wants to thank Sanghamithra and Water.org for this opportunity.
This success story was submitted by Water.org partner organization Sanghamithra, made possible by a generous grant by the PepsiCo Foundation.
