Chalmaya's story of change
- May 10, 2023
- Manjil Sherchan
- No Comments
Chalmaya Thapa, a 40-year-old woman residing in Ekletar, Gaindakot municipality-3, Nawalpur is suffering from a chronic cervical disease. For a living, she and her husband rely on agriculture, which is only sufficient to sustain them for 3 months. Chalmaya’s poor health condition restricts her ability to engage fully in agricultural activities with her husband.
LOAN FOR A BETTER FUTURE LED TO DEBT
Seeking a better future, Chalmaya’s husband obtained a loan from a nearby financial institution in 2016 to work as a migrant labourer in Gulf countries. However, due to Chalmaya’s worsening health, he had to return to care for his wife. Her husband adds “The earning were all invested for the treatment of my wife”.
In the mid of 2019, with hopes for a brighter future, the couple secured another loan from the cooperative to establish a hotel business. Unfortunately, their aspirations were cut short when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and their business went gradually down.
After facing numerous challenges and setbacks, I began to lose hope and felt like a burden to my husband, who was shouldering the financial burden of my family.
While sharing her pain with friends, she came to know about the livelihood interventions of Caritas Nepal.
BY THE VIRTUE OF INCLUSION
The program has played a vital role in integrating women and vulnerable groups by coordinating and capacitating community people on GESI. Through this effort, 19 women received microenterprise support to be entrepreneurs and Chalmaya is one of them.
She says – we were almost near to stepping back because of resource scarcity after COVID-19. But Caritas Nepal stepped-in in such a difficult time providing 20,000 NPR allowed us to keep our business running. With this amount, I have restocked grocery items and utensils”.
Soon after the support, in 10 days she was able to make a net profit of 15000 NPR approximately by serving 25 road construction workers. The profit amount helped Chalmaya to pay the monthly loan instalment (4000 NPR) and invested in their business to expand.
Chalmaya happily shared “Caritas Nepal has played a catalyst role in our life, and, I now can happily leave the world without putting the financial burden on my family”.
