“I will renovate our dwelling house”

Like Halima, Sheuli Begum and her husband, Anis Forayezi, struggled to farm a plot of land too small to feed their family of five. Living in Dakkhin Rakudia village of Babuganj Upazila in Barisal district, they did not even have a house to live in, could not afford health care and had to removed their children from school to help supplement the family’s income.

In 2012, Sheuli became a member of a local NJLIP group and started depositing small amounts of savings to receive a loan from the village credit organization. Soon she bought a milch cow and was selling four to five liters of milk per day, earning about 4,500 taka each month. She eventually had enough for more cows, began sending her children to schools and leased an acre of farmland for her husband to cultivate.

“I will renovate our dwelling house, and build a new one on our old homestead for cattle rearing so that I could rear more improved varieties, which will eventually help increasing my income,” says Sheuli.