01 December 2007

Trickle Up Helps Indian Entrepreneur Start Small Business

Organization assists people out of poverty, one microenterprise at a time

 

Ajmeri Bibi and her family are proud of her profitable small rickshaw business. (Trickle Up)

Ajmeri Bibi said that once she never left the house. Now she knows how to use money and build a business and, in addition, is a community leader.

When asked what she would do if she received a small business grant from Trickle Up, a New York-based nongovernmental organization, she said she would buy a secondhand bicycle rickshaw so her husband no longer would need to rent one.

Trickle Up, founded in 1979, aims to empower people living on less than a dollar a day to take the first steps out of poverty by providing them with resources to build microenterprises for a better quality of life. In partnership with local agencies, Trickle Up provides businesses around the world with training and seed capital to launch or expand a microenterprise.

Bibi received her Trickle Up grant and, with the combination of the first installment and her own savings, purchased a rickshaw. With a foot-powered small taxi of their own, she and her husband then started saving the money they had been spending on a rental. The grant's second installment allowed them to buy another rickshaw, which they rented out for additional income.

But then Bibi's husband got sick with tuberculosis and she needed money from their savings for his treatment. Eventually, he died. Bibi remarried.

Bibi now owns three rickshaws and rents three others. Her second husband plies one of the six and they rent the others for a profit. Their income from their small transportation business has continued to rise.

To explain her success, the entrepreneur says, "I now know how to save and use money."

The couple is now saving for a cycle repair shop where Bibi's husband could work, as well as for a tea shop nearby. They also have begun to save for their two daughters’ future marriages.

THE POWER OF MICROENTERPRISE

India remains a country deeply rooted in inequality and poverty, despite its much-publicized growth. Access to capital is one of the greatest barriers to improving the lives of the very poor, as they typically are unable to qualify for microfinance or conventional bank programs.

Amidst overwhelming poverty, however, there is an entrepreneurial spirit, strengthened by unflagging industriousness that is the foundation of Trickle Up’s work.

In India, Trickle Up works in five of the poorest states, targeting traditionally disadvantaged groups, including women, people with disabilities, and members of lower castes and tribes. Trickle Up has helped launch more than 18,500 businesses in India, improving the lives of more than 98,000 people.

Trickle Up receives most of its support from individual donations. Other funding is provided by corporations, foundations and governments. The organization states it has helped start or expand over 150,000 businesses as a way out of poverty, benefiting the lives of over half a million people around the world.

More information about Trickle Up’s work helping entrepreneurs in 14 countries is available on the organization's Web site.