More than just microfinance: A pandemic story
Mrs. Manimegalai is a tailor by profession. She is 36 years old, married, and living in Thiruvarur District, India. Her husband is a carpenter by profession, and they have two school-going children; a girl aged seven years and a boy who is four.
Mrs. Manimegalai has been a client of VisionFund’s microfinance institution IMPACT from 2019 and has taken two loans for the purchase of a sewing machine for her tailoring business. She has been regular in her repayments prior to Covid-19 as she was doing good in her tailoring business, but during the pandemic she struggled with the many challenges that impacted her livelihood.
Due to the pandemic, her husband who was working in a nearby town, lost his job due to lockdown and the family struggles started. Her tailoring business was also not doing good as very few people were coming to her for stitching as Covid-19 had affected the life of most the people in the village and nearby villages in some way or the other.
During this time, with almost no business and her husband losing his job, the family was struggling to make ends meet. The family struggled to pay the repayments. Her loan officer Mr.Anbazhagan visited the client and tried to understand the challenges with making the repayments. He realized that repayment would be difficult as the client were struggling with limited sources of income. He found out that the family was planning to sell two out of their three sewing machines to raise income for the family. He immediately informed the family not to do so and that he would find some way to help improve the income of the family.
Mr. Anbazhagan discussed the situation of the family with their Branch Manager Mr. Alwin and they came up with an idea. Anbazhagan met the local dairy cooperative manager and discussed with him the challenges faced by his client’s family and got assurance of milk collection from the dairy every day. After finalizing on the milk procurement from the dairy, he discussed with Mrs. Manimegalai and her husband on the possibility of purchasing a cow. Once the family agreed, he guided and supported them to purchase a cow from a local trader at a reasonable rate.
With the purchase of the cow, the family income improved and they earned enough to take care of their day-to-day needs along with some income coming from the tailoring business. Her husband also brought in some income by working as a daily wage labourer whenever there was work available in the village. The family is currently managing their life in a better way, although they are waiting for the pandemic to come to an end so that her husband can find work out of the village and the children can go back to school for their studies.
“We were in a desperate situation, and we did not know what to do and how to go ahead in life,” says Mrs. Manimegalai. “During such a time, IMPACT came as a lifeline to us, guiding us and helping us to manage the Covid related challenges by suggesting us to shift to a new business and providing all support for regular milk sale. We are hoping that life will slowly improve and we would be able to live a better life. IMPACT has been a blessing to us.”
Photo and story by Mr. Anbazhagan – IMPACT India