MICRO FINANCING

MICRO FINANCING

Women comprise more than 50 percent of Pakistan’s total population but they are one of the most deprived and vulnerable groups in this society. Limited access to the essentials of life undermines their capabilities and limits their ability to secure gainful employment which results in low income, poverty and social exclusion. The women in Pakistan are not in the main stream because they lack capability and privilege in terms of education, skills, access to resources and knowledge. They can be empowered and their status can be improved through enhancing their entrepreneurial skills by providing training and facilitating them in establishing their own small-scale businesses. We strongly believe that enhancing the participation of women in mainstream development would mean providing those greater opportunities and accessibility to make decisions and manage their own resources and to be self reliant. We through the mandate of different projects has provided interest-free micro credit support to as many as 1244 most vulnerable women belonging to disadvantaged groups of different communities in four districts of AJK namely Bagh, Mirpur, Kotli and Bhimber. The provided support was not over PKR 35,000 per women but the meager support has helped a lot the needy women in establishment of small scale enterprises through purchase of necessary tools and retail stocks. We in the same move have also trained up to 2375 women in the small scale business management skills.

All the beneficiaries to date are making good contributions in their household incomes through the established small scale businesses while the Sukhi has been able to make a timely recovery of loans as a result of which hundreds of other women are being economically empowered through the same process in various target areas. We have an extensive experience of providing loan facility to number of disadvantaged women after mandatory trainings for establishment of small enterprises on self-help basis. We come with the mission of creating such vibrant communities where all the groups especially the women have access to various growth opportunities. Thus Sukhi to date has achieved to certain degree its mission of empowering women by making it resourceful part of target communities.