POOMALAI FEDERATION
VISION:
“Economic autonomy of Women for Blossoming of Power”
Blossom identified a long felt need in the community for community based banking. As such, a federation of women’s Self Help Groups was formed under the umbrella of ‘Poomalai’. Each group consists of 12-20 members mainly poor women. The groups are named after flowers. In each district area there are 10-15 groups that form a local cluster. These clusters are all part of a Federation, called Blossom’s Poomalai.This federation is focused on the mobilization of resources, shared capital mobilization, credit revolvement and any other financial matters pertaining to the groups. There are 1000 groups in the Poomalai Federation
Poomalai projects are divided in two sectors : MFI and ROSE Marketing. MFI, Micro Finance Credit, helps rural and urban poor people to gain access to a loan to invest in an income genereting activity from which they earn a profit to reinvest in their activities. Weekly meetings are organized and members save on average Rs. 25/- per week. The savings are deposited into the bank and then divided up as loans to the members. After operating for six months, and if certain requirements are met, the SHGs become eligible to apply for a bank loan after which funds can be lent to their most needy members.
Once people have benefited from MFI project, project ROSE (Rural Opportunity for Social Emancipation for Women) helps them to establish a sustainable business. ROSE searches for leaders in the local markets who are willing to train the women in becoming rural agents. Once this training is achieved, these rural leaders support the local people in making their projects financially sustainable.
Training for Self Help Groups Includes :
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