WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT THROUGH LIVELIHOOD IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM
New Life has been involved in the Livelihood Improvement Program since 1994 through the formation of Self-Help Groups among poor women. A unique poverty tool was utilized to screen the aspiring members into the program. At the end of March 2008, almost 19500 economically challenged women had benefited from the program. They were given trainings on how to take up small enterprises aimed at generating income for their families. Later on, through the program, they were assisted to arrange a loan from financial institutions. Presently, each of them is involved in a small business that alleviates poverty in their family. Their income generation activities are being monitored periodically by the livelihood improvement committee of the organization.
The poor women from the BPL category (irrespective of caste, creed and religion) are the target segment for the various activities being carried out by New Life. The number of members that had benefited from the various programs of the organization as of September 2008 had summed up to 28109 women. These empowered women are residents of the Trichy, Perambalur, Tiruvarur, Pudukkotai, Nagappattinam and Cuddalore districts of Tamilnadu.
New Life aims to reach two million women by the year 2010. The organization is targetting to empower women from Tamilnadu, Andhrapradesh and Karnataka using the tested tools developed over the past 12 years. This article is created by Ellen.