Dreams come into reality

Dreams come into reality

Kulsuma a distressed women of above address has 3 children - two sons and a daughter. The daughter is the eldest among the children and is 8 years old. She reads in class 2. Kulsuma's husband is a rickshaw mechanic who works locally and is physically impaired. He can not work very hard. Kulsuma is a patient of heart disease and has to be on medication everyday. Kusuma and her family lives in thatched house.

Kulsuma got a VGD card for the 2009-2010 cycle, with the help of the local Union Parishad member.

On receipt of the card she has regularly been receiving food assistance from the UP as entitled by the card. Side by side she received life skills training of the programme and has taken Entrepreneurship Development training. She has chosen poultry rearing as her desired IGA and will receive the training in the 1^St quarter of 2010. The training received so far has helped to change her attitude. Following life skills training she has set up a sanitary latrine on the bank of the pond on her homestead.

On being aware at the different aspects of social side Kulsuma decided to make herself a self-reliant person.

Her homestead comprises of 7 decimals of land, which she received as inheritance from her mother. She dug a small pond in a portion of land. She cultivated fish at the pond from which she received a sale proceeded of Tk 2500 this year, in November. In the homestead she has cultivated a variety of vegetables with the objective of consumption and sale. She cultivated pumpkin, brinjal, beans, green chilli, tomato, sweet potato and red spinach on her land. By this time she has earned Tk 1500 by sellin^g_ different kinds of vegetable. These are providing to her an additional income. On being motivated she has planted 5 trees with a hope of income in the long run. In the current year besides her homestead land she has cultivated winter vegetable at land of her mother. She has cultivated 10 decimals of land combining both hers and her mother's land. She has also planted sugarcane on the perimeter of her homestead. She has also sold a few chickens, for Tk. 500, which were raised on her homestead. From all her proceeds she has bought a calf for Tk. 5,000. Currently she owns 15 chickens and a goat.

She says that the training from the programme and interaction with other made her into a confident woman. She wants to become self-reliant with all these income enhancement initiatives. For savings she has opened a savings scheme with a local bank, where she saves Tk. 100 every month. She wants to send her children to school for education and hopes that being educated her children will be able to remove poverty from her family permanently.