In Binodpur, income sources are limited. People fish and farm for a living, but irregular rain and cyclones destroy crops, while many who go fishing are killed by tiger attacks.

We have a 60-year-old widow named Ranjita who lives with her 10-year-old grandson. She had been going through a financial crisis, struggling for basic needs. To overcome this crisis, our Transformational Community Development (TCD) group started a skill development program. We are teaching the community to use local resources like palm leaves to make mats or grow mushrooms to sell.

Last month I visited the neighboring state of Jharkhand to learn about growing mushrooms. Ranjita is one of our TCD volunteers who learned along with me and practiced it at her home. Now she is very happy because she believes that she can sell the mushrooms and earn some money. She is also earning 1000 rupees ($11.50) per month from our education center. Now, she is helping others to overcome their financial crises.

Thank you,

Written by Bharat, GHNI TCD Worker