“My name is Rani Mohali, and I live in Jahada Rural Municipality-5, Sohal tole. There is total 11 Mohali families residing in this community. My family consists of five people: my son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren.
As, we were doing this work for our household purpose with few selling in the community before but now it has been commercialized with the advance training provided by LWF and also the inputs (bamboos and tools) we received from LCWS/LWF. The project has also supported us to link with local market as well as wholesalers in Biratnagar. We are now producing the bamboo buckets in different size and also sitting tools so that we can find market opportunities.
Now, we make the products and my son takes it to Biratnagar for selling purpose. We go twice a week to sell basket business and usually earn NPR 4000 to NPR 5000 in an average per week. The income is sufficient to cover the household expenses as well as the debt amount of cooperative. Initially, the house was only made of bricks. With the profits from the bamboo basket business, we are able to plaster and paint the house, therefore, business is going well.
Everyone in our family works in the basket business weaving activities. There was not much capital earlier but LWF/LCWS organised five days of modern dhaki weaving training and supported NPR 15,000 from which we purchased bamboo and other weaving materials. Our income and capital have grown after the intervention of LWF/LCWS in our community. It has become easy to send children to school.
During monsoon, our house was flooded. And, at the time, we received food items which was sufficient for one week. Many thanks to LWF/LCWS for your continuous support and guidance.”