Eeramma can now finish her sewing at a much faster pace and give more time to her family. A resident of Rajeshwar village in Karnataka can earn a monthly income of Rs. 6000/- from with her new sewing machine powered by solar energy. She is very happy and is planning to purchase one more sewing machine to enhance family earning and secure her and her children lives

The Micro project support of Caritas India is turning renewable power to bring greater benefit to the financial weaker families of Rajeshwar village in Bidar District of Karnataka. The solar-powered sewing machine and solar light has brought economic empowerment, health benefit, and allows children to study even in the night.

Caritas India gave her seal of approval to the Organisation of Bidar Integral Transformation (ORBIT) project to support economical weaker rural women through the solar-powered sewing machine to generate income for their families.

Eeramma was singled out as one of the beneficiaries of the project due to her weaker financial status. Eeramma’s husband is a daily wage worker and can earn 150 to 200 rupees per day. Her two daughters are studying her degree and pre-degree course whereas the third one is in school. Despite their financial crunch, the couple is supporting their children education as they were deprived of education in their childhood.

ORBIT project “empowering the economically backward of rural women” encouraged her to know more about its features and benefits. She joined the self-help group and learned about social, political and economic independence of women in society for empowerment and development. She also learned about different Govt. entitlements, got knowledge of savings and conscious use of money. In livelihood training, she learned about how women can earn or increase their income by engaging in income generation and self-employment activities.

Exposure to nearby villages and experiencing women involvement in IGP changed her life. She decided to learn to tailor and within a year with her hard work, she mastered this skill. And very soon she started making money from it, but it was not regular, so she later decided to own her own sewing machine. But she did not have enough funds to do so.

ORBIT supported her with a solar driven sewing machine for tailoring and solar light for her family. The project brought a lot of positive changes in her family, now she can easily manage to earn 6000 Rupees/month with the help of sewing machine, she can spare out some time for her family and to look after them along with her day to day work.