the first interview

Visiting Rekha Gugar, who is one of the success stories where XIDAS has played a vital role in assisting a poor lower caste women in realizing her own dream.

Together with miss Vaishali, who has been very helpful during my stay here in Jabalpur, we have a meeting with her at her house.

We introduce ourselves, Rekha and Vaishali enjoy some conversation which I unfortunately don’t understand (in Hindi) and then I interview here. Vaishali is there to translate and since she’s very friendly with Rekha, she is also there to give her trust and a comfortable feeling.

When and why did you decide to follow this REPD training program in XIDAS?

My auntie read something about the training in a local newspaper and told it to me. It was mentioned that the training was free and for a long time I was hoping to do some education which could help me find a job. I had to leave school when I was 13 and till now (she’s 24) I was unemployed. My husband has to do with day to day work and so our conditions were going from bad to worse. I followed the course from March till June in 2003. It is the hottest season of the year, up till 45 degrees every day and so it was very hard but I persisted. Me and my children had to sleep with my auntie for all the period because XIDAS was to far from my house. While my mother was also there to help in the household, my mother in law cooked for my husband. It was a hard time but I was very happy to hold on.

Did your husband agree from the beginning?

His mother immediately said that she would do the cooking for him and he was very helpful to me. He thinks that I should also have my source of income and he his, like equals. Later on he also supported me in providing some loan and he supports the idea of a tailoring shop as much as I do.

So what kind of things did you actually learn at XIDAS?

I learned how to make all kind of clothes, for women, man and children. Bank and government officials came and explained how to handle all the paper work. In those three months time I learned everything to begin my work as a tailor.

So what was the next step, after completing this course?

Together with my husband I went to the bank to ask for a loan. XIDAS told them that we were coming and they had already explaining why we were going to be there. Together with miss Vaishali we went several times to the government officials to get the correct papers. In December 2003 I applied for my loan. Normally it should only take up till 6 months for them to investigate but it lasted till July 2005 till I got the clearance. Meanwhile I was taking small orders from friends and family. Since two months my sister brings me every morning 16 kurtas which I have to stitch by evening time. For every kurta I get 3 rupee so that I have a living of 48 rupee right now (1euro). In the future, from February to be exact, I will be able to open my own shop here and then my income will be much higher. I hope to employ 2 or 3 girls soon. After 1 year I will pay back my first loan and try to find an other one so I can rent or buy a better place for my shop then this place here (she lives in a back alley).

This all sounds very nice. To end all my questions, could you sort of summarize in which kind of ways XIDAS has been helping you to reach at this point.

Well, without the training from XIDAS I would never have been able to start something in the first place. After that, Miss Vaishali has been very kind to me. We had to go to government office so many times and she also followed up the whole process of the loan with the bank. They advised me to do everything in small steps and they were right because now I see how you can start up a business.

Thank you very much

After that we took some pictures and wished here all the best.