Rajkumar’s Story

Rajkumar, has one leg disability and lives in a small village Karab, Mathura. He lives with his old mother, wife and 3 children and depended on rainfed farming for making his living. His mother is always worried about Rajkumar as he cannot do hard work and no one keeps him in any job due to his disability. His wife has to work both in home front and farm to support the family in her best capacity. FAME team came in contact with Rajkumar and family during the Dairy farmers meeting and found him as a very entrepreneurial person. He joined FAME as a volunteer and started supporting FAME’s veterinary doctor for door to door visits during the Treatment camps. He also organized awareness camps in his village and collected several people to listen to the advisory given by FAME’s Staff and Doctors. As FAME started to expand its Dairy development work, it was decided to open a Milk Collection Center in Karab under the leadership of Rajkumar. He was made the president of ‘Karab Milk Collection Society’ run by FAME and Banas Dairy (A unit of AMUL Group). Initially, Rajkumar was doubtful of taking this role but FAME motivated him and assured to work together as a team. In the first week of Launch, very few dairy farmers gave Milk in the Collection Centre. They were not sure whether it will continue to run for long term or shut down in a few days. Rajkumar didn’t lose hope and decided to go door to door along with FAME team and conduct one to one meeting with the Dairy Farmers. Several meetings were conducted with dairy farmers of the area and slowly, milk started pouring in. Rajkumar woke up early in the morning and sat till late evenings for milk collection without missing any Dairy farmers in his locality. Soon, as the payment started coming to the dairy farmers, more dairy farmers started joining. His milk collection reached 100 Litre per day and after a few months it was 250 litres per day which was highest for Banas Dairy ( A unit of AMUL Group) collection in that area. Rajkumar has decided to add maximum members in his Milk Collection Centre and he still continues to do awareness and Treatment camps with FAME team, adding members with each passing day. His mother has a huge smile on her face and his wife is very proud of Rajkumar. He has started earning regular income & earned the respect of his family and community members.

Rajshree’s Story

Rajshree, a woman from the small village of “Mullah ki Pyayu” in Agra is the epitome of resilience and determination. She joined FAME’s Shoe Artisans Program when it was launched in 2022 as she wanted to contribute to her family income but she had neither the skill nor the confidence to step out of her home. When she started coming to the Centre, she faced a lot of resistance from her family, specifically from her husband. It has been over an year now and with her hard work and relentless support from FAME she can now manufacture a good quality shoe and earns over Rs,3000/month. FAME’s Shoe Artisans Program has transformed Rajshree’s life, empowering her to break free from the cycle of poverty. With the value she now adds to the family, her husband who used to stop her from coming to the Centre now comes to drop her there. She has become an inspiration not only to her family but also to others in the community, demonstrating the transformative power of Skill Development and Financial Independence.

Sunita’s Story

Sunita Devi is a small kirana shop owner in Bharatpur. Being a single woman in a small conservative town, she has seen several challenges in her life. She became widow at a very early age and then she faced the burden of raising 3 children without any source of income. With no other skills or option, she decided to start a small kirana shop outside her house to earn a living. She struggled hard and somehow raised her children. As the children were growing she wanted to increase her income but was not able to understand how to do so. One day she met FAME officer- Mr. Sourabh who was inviting the kirana shop owners in the area for an interactive workshop on ‘Capacity development for Kirana owners’. She got curious on how and why someone was conducting a workshop for kirana owners for the first time. She decided to attend the same with her son. They both attended the workshop for Small kirana owners, where they learned several aspects on how to grow their kirana business and its profit, change customer feel and experience, adopt modern and digital methods of kirana business. She was very impressed with this workshop and asked more support from FAME officials for improving her business. Looking at her need and interest, FAME chose her for their ‘Sakhsam Kirana Project’. Under the project FAME gave a grant for complete shop renovation. Her old racks and furniture were removed and new design of racks, paint and lighting were installed by FAME. Paytm and whatsapp Business have been installed for ease of business services. Inventory was carefully chosen and all racks were filled up with various FMCG products. The shop got a complete different look and feel. Once the shop re-opened customers were taken by surprise. They were surprised on how a small shop has been re-organised and each and every product was visible, even from far. On analysing her progress, she found that within 3 months itself her customers had increased by 51% and overall sales had grown by 65%. She is very happy with her progress and continues to apply the advisory she received from FAME Kirana capacity workshop. She is confident that now she will be able to take care of her children in better ways than ever.