My name is Gahini Debi Chaudhary. Currently, I live happily with my family in Ward 8 of Kamal village. I have a lot of experience with the pain of living in a poor family. I was born 41 years ago as the eldest daughter of a Chaudhary family living in Bahuni VDC of Morang district. In those days my parents, 5 siblings and I lived in a hut.My dad was the only one making money, so we had a tough life. I wanted to study but being the eldest daughter, I had to work in other houses from an early age. when I remember those days, my eyes were full of tears.
Days passed with impoverishment. I still remember the day when my aunt came home to talk about my marriage. I was married to Ganesh Chaudhary, a resident of Jhapa district in 2058 BS. I was very happy and eager for beginning of a new life, and at the same time, there was a certain curiosity, how is the house, how are the family members, a lot of questions were wandering in my mind.
We reached Jhapa in the evening, a small hut was silently talking to me that, I am your roof. I felt very bad to see my future home. All my curiosities and hopes were dashed. But I accepted the truth thinking that I will decorate the world with my husband in this house because it was his own house. But within a few days my dream broke again, knowing that only the hut belonged to him, the ground below belongs to others, which can be removed at any time.
Despite the poverty, my husband worked very hard. It was very difficult to run a house with the income of one person, so I started working together. In 5 to 6 years of marriage, 2 daughters and 1 son were born. The number of families increased but the income was still the same, so it was very difficult to run a house. Time was barely passing, then a big problem arose that the owner asked me to leave my land. At that time, we could not take any decision, we both wept all night. We were looking for solutions to the problems. Coincidentally, an unknown person sitting on the bike came close to me. He welcomed me like a sister. He was on the staff of JeevanBikas Microfinance. That day he explained to me in detail about JeevanBikas and its services. When he spoke, I thought that God would have sent him here for me because he was talking about debt without bail. I felt that land could be bought for the house.
I spoke to my friends in the village and tried to form a group. First of all, when I talked about JeevanBikas' services, no one believed me. But latera employee ofJeevanBikas spoke about the services, a group of 10 friends formed.
I bought 1.5 kattha of land with a loan of 15,000 rupees. We went from being landless to being a landowner with a first loan. My husband helped me pay the installments with his daily wage income, and I also started working with small wage income. With the second loan of 30,000 rupees, we bought a small furniture making machine. After that, he began to make small furniture. For the third time, we took out 50,000 loans and added 20,000 from our savings and purchased 3 kattha of land again. We got the land, but we still had to build a house, so we decided to take out a loan again to build a house. Now we have a nice house with three bedrooms on the first lot.At that time, other institutions like JeevanBikas also came to the village. Friends of the villager started doing business by taking out loans from these institutions. I also wanted to join these institutions and progress. As a result, I joined three other microfinance groups, taken out loans. I also opened a grocery store. I thought that with my own home and my professional life, I would be happy. But after getting loansfrom many places, the store's income could not pay the loan installments. Friends have also stopped believing me when they have trouble paying the down payment. There was a lot of stress in life.
Then I realized that it is not possible to make progress in many institutions by taking loans at once. Instead, the former property will also be exhausted. So, after repaying the loan, I leave all the institutions and living only in Jeevan Bikas. Gradually the situation improved. Again, I completed the unfinished house by taking a loan from Jeevan Bikas. We bought a motorcycle to make it easier for my husband to get around for work. I started expanding the grocery store. Now my husband earns about Rs 40,000 a month from carpentry. I am also earning a good income from the grocery store. Sons and daughters are reading well.
There are happy moments in my family today because Jeevan Bikas has shown the right path and provided the necessary support. Loan can bring a radical change in a person's life, but I have a great experience that it can lead to a complicated situation of not being able to run and trying to run more than the capacity. I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart the Jeevan Bikas's staff who have come as a symbol of God to bring happiness to my family.