Manjula Nilmini |
Niroshani Fonseka |
Kanthi de Silva |
|
Near the Kalpitiya Lagoon, Manjula Nilmini, a mother of two children, about 35 years, is helping her husband - Anthony Cyril - at their home to select crabs. They have just sold a load of crabs at the going rate of Rs 1,100 per kilo. They used to sell 10 to 15 kilos crabs per day.
It was a Ceylinco Grameen loan of Rs 20,000 that helped her to improve the business after she joined this network in 2006. Ms Nilmini buys soft shelled crabs at the rate of Rs 400 per kilo, which were otherwise discarded by the ordinary fishermen which come with their catch.
Just around 20 to 30 ft away from the edge of the lagoon in an enclosure the couple has sunk three steel cages where the soft shelled crabs are deposited and they are fed daily with fish for about one month or until the soft shell gets hardened. Then the crabs are sold. At any given time there would be around 300 crabs in the cages.
When The Sunday Times FT accompanied a team of officials of the Ceylinco Grameen Credit Co Ltd on November 25 on a field visit to Kalpitiya in Puttalam to assess at grass-root level how this poverty-reducing scheme was working, it was raining heavily and heavy winds had caused havoc to most of the vegetable plantations.
Kalpitiya is rich in spring onions, long beans and a variety of other crops. Most of the well grown plantain trees, blossoming papaya trees and guava trees were uprooted and flat on the ground.
The tough weather was also affecting fishing and according to some reports, at least two fishermen were reported dead and some others were reported missing among those men who had gone to sea despite the weather.
Ms. Nilmini said she obtained the second loan of Rs 40,000 in 2007 and another Rs 60,000 loan in May 2008, buying a motorcycle for her husband from the second loan. The smiling entrepreneur said, proudly, "Now we have money in the bank". Their monthly profit is around Rs 25,000. During their 2 ½ years with the Grameen network they have replaced their cadjan hut with a brick and cement house, spending Rs 5 lakhs and it is now nearing completion. "This God-like scheme has dragged us out of poverty," she said.
Kanthi de Silva is not married but looking after her brother's children. She obtained a loan of Rs 15,000 in 2005 and started farming in Kalpitiya, first with red onions followed by beans, then papaya and now she has added few more crops in a 2 ½ acre plot. The profit has grown from Rs 25,000 to around Rs 75,000 today. With other income they have constructed a house and from the profits of cultivation they spent Rs 5 lakhs on the house. Her brother helps her in the cultivation, while her sister-in-law too is a member of Grameen. Periodically she has obtained loans of Rs 30,000, Rs 50,000 and Rs 80,000.
Asanka Niroshani Fonseka at Araliya Uyana, Puttalam obtained just Rs 5,000 loan in 2002 and started selling vegetables in a cadjan hut. A year later with another loan of Rs 10,000 she replaced her cadjan hut with planks and tin sheet roof. After eight months, she got Rs 20,000 loan and used it to convert her vegetable shop to a grocery. A refrigerator was bought with another loan of Rs 40,000.
Ceylinco Grameen officials guidance, assistance and monitoring were more than adequate, several members told The Sunday Times FT while reflecting on the road from abject poverty to the riches of modern life.
Ms Fonseka was beaming with happiness and all smiles when she related her success story. She has constructed a good house. She brings up three children while her husband a mechanic also helps in the work in her grocery store. She has obtained another Rs 100,000 to put up aluminum and glass racks for her grocery shop.
The Kalpitiya unit of Ceylinco Grameen is located next to the Kalpitya security camp and every week nearly 100 members, all women, meet. That day the meeting was led by Warnakulasuriya R Sujeewa, Regional Manager, North Western and he was assisted M K Dhanushka Atulatheja, Senior Manager, Branch Coordination and C Romesh Christy, Assistant Manager, Investigations.
The Kalpitiya sub unit of the Ceylinco Grameen Micro Credit is part of the Puttalam office of Ceylinco Micro Credit Branch which is managed by Lasantha Roland with a staff of 43. This office covers 142 such centres like the Kalpitiya one with a membership of 8,000. It covers areas within the demarcations of Mundalama, Karativu, Rajanganaya and Kalpitiya. There are 72 Ceylinco Micro Credit District offices like the one in Puttalam.
At the meeting, every member had brought their loan repayment installment. They not only discussed about their loans, their projects and the mode of repayment, but also resolving community problems. One woman wept while relating how her cadjan hut was razed to the ground in a fire due to an accident caused by a bottle lamp. The officials noted the incident and undertook to help construct a new house.
The Ceylinco Grameen - Micro Credit scheme is an adaptation of the now world renowned scheme started by Prof Muhammad Yunus, in Bangladesh called the 'banker of the poor' and was also the founder of the Grameen Bank.
G.Victor Ratnayake, Deputy Chairman, Ceylinco Grameen Group of Companies told The Sunday Times FT that the micro credit system in Sri Lanka - steered by Ceylinco Group Chairman Lalith Kotelawela, is aimed at reducing poverty in Sri Lanka and bring a direct link between trade and poverty.
He said the loans start at Rs 5,000 with an undertaking that the money must be used to bring the poor out of poverty. He said that Prof Yunus laid down that credit should not be offered to men and to avoid urban areas.
Ceylinco Micro Credit while not giving loans to men are providing loans to women in poor urban areas.
Mr Ratnayake said that there are several organizations in Sri Lanka dealing with micro credit and they have proved to be successful in dragging the poor out to a sustainable position.
He said the success rate of the scheme is around 95 % and also the rate of recovery of loans too has reached beyond 95 %. Mr Ratnayake said that a man from the north who started Papadum manufacturing with a loan of Rs 10,000 and with one bicycle is now an industrialist with 100 bicycles operating under him. He has not only prospered in his own life but also elevated the lives of another 100 families by providing jobs. |
E-mail