YGB micro-loan recipient Sonomani’s journey: from domestic violence (DV) survivor to a business owner

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Sonamoni confident and happy with mat-making group womens’ groups. (above: 2023)

YGB Microloan group transforms Sonamoni (2020)

We first met Sonamoni in 2018, as one of the micro-loan recipients, making straw mats in a poor rural village of West Bengal, supported by YGB’s global community.

Sonamoni’s husband was abusing her because her sons died at early age, then gave birth to a girl. Her in-laws also joined in the abuse. Micro-loan group leaders went to the police to rescue her from this abuse, which led to her husband and mother-in-law being kept in police custody for 6 months.

During this time, Sonamoni started earning 200 rupees a day (US 3 dollars) by making and selling mats with her micro-loan group. She grew confident in her ability to provide her daughter with an education so that one day she will be able to can live a better life.

Just like Sonamoni’s case, we have witnessed how the micro-loan groups help members with domestic issues, taking a stand and assisting other members to receive fair treatment. Many members are illiterate, but they are all determined to empower themselves with income earned from their work and small businesses.  Sonomani even built her own home and started her life with her husband and her daughter.

In 2023, we visited Sonomani in West Bengal again after a three-year pause due to the pandemic-induced lockdown, which impacted Indian villages in severely negative ways. Miraculously, mat-making continued to thrive and Sonomani’s group became the only income-earners in the community. Sonomani’s husband, who had become unemployed during the pandemic, asked her to teach him to make mats so that he could earn an income, as well.

This chain of events fundamentally changed Sonomani’s status at home as well as in the community. Her family started to express respect for her, which made her smile with a happiness and pride that I have never seen before.

This February, we returned to visit our NGO partner NISHTHA in West Bengal. They took us to Sonomani’s new retail shop at the train station, where we were once again surprised to learn about her progress.  She now employs her husband to help run her successful business

Showing a big smile, Sonomani told me she is so happy to own her shop as well as maintain a mat-making business in the village. Adding to her happiness is her husband’s help to make this business a profitable one. Her husband says “ I am working hard with my wife so that my daughter can have a good education and live a happy life.”

What a difference one micro-loan group has created in one woman’s life. Sonomani’s story demonstrates the powerful role that a peer group can serve in providing a meaningful solution to deep-rooted domestic issues as well as the self-confidence to build an independent and happy life for herself.

 

Sonamoni Finds Strength From Her Micro Loan Group Members, West Bengal (2018)  Read more

 

2018: Sonomani shared that her husband and in-laws were abusing her at home because she had a daughter but no sons. She joined micro-loan group seeking support and financial independence.

 

NISHTHA social workers and her micro-loan group helped her to stand on her own and fight for her equal rights.

 

2023: She looked confident and happy with mat-making group womens’ groups.

 

2023 Sonomani’s Train Station Shop with her husband as an employee.