Shaidah is an embroidery instructor at Suvidha, Hope Project’s sewing and embroidery production unit. When Hope decided to start up their Thrift and Credit program, they brought it to the women of Suvidha first. But several other organizations had attempted savings groups in the past, and many of these had run off the money they had been entrusted with. Everyone was desperate to save, but nervous to commit to the program. But Shaidah had faith in the Hope Project and decided to give it a try. “Hope is quite old now and proven reliable. The people who deposit Samrat’s money in the bank are know to the community, so we know our money is safe.” Nearly all of Suvidha now saves successfully with the Thrift and Credit program and are enjoying the benefits. “We are well informed about our money here,” Shaidah explains.

Shaidah’s husband, a doctor in the Basti, passed away almost ten years ago, leaving her with three girls and a boy to take care of on her own. Shaidah is an instructor of embroidery at Suvidha, Samrat’s sewing and embroidery production unit. Widows are confined to their homes for four months after the death of their husbands, and when hers passed away, Shaidah did not know how she would survive without her earnings from Suvidha. But Hope, she says, was there for her when she needed them most. In those months, they gave her money to tide her over, brought her sewing students to her home, and assured her that she could keep her job. And when her period of mourning ended, it was her membership in the Thrift and Credit program that helped keep her financially and emotionally independent.

Worried about how she would support her children on her own, Shaidah’s family tried to force her to marry off her daughters immediately. However Shaidah, who passed the eleventh standard herself and now with some savings of her own, flatly refused, insisting they finish their education first so they would be able to get good jobs one day. Ten years and four loans from Samrat later, all her children have finished college and have good jobs. One daughter is a nurse, two have office jobs, and her son works at a travel agency. Shaidah now has her sights set on good matches for her children, especially her son, whom she looks forward to living with one day.

Shaidah believes in Samrat and knows it’s important for women to save what they can on their own. “Men in the Basti don’t have jobs, but they don’t allow the women to women to work either,” she points out. One woman she knows started a little business of her own, cooking and packing food in tiffins for men on their way to work. Her husband, who insisted on delivering the lunches to the clients, disapproved and sabotaged his wife’s efforts. He failed to deliver her lunches on time, and the woman had to close her business down. Women need to be able to provide for themselves, Shaidah believes, and with Samrat, they have been able to do that. “Now women are more independent. They don’t ask their husbands for money.” Instead, she says, “women come together at meetings, talk about their families, and help each other out.” That, she says, is the best part.