Ms.Vasantha, 38, W/o Peetha Perumal resides in Keela Easanoor Village in Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu. She has 2 girl children aged 15 and 17 to take care. The children are studying; the elder one in college and the younger one in high school. She belongs to the Dalit community and in the economic front comes under Below Poverty Line category.

She is a differently-abled person since childhood with her left leg being affected by polio and has got 40% disability. Her husband was also a physically challenged person and was bedridden for 5 years. He died in November 2019. She works as a daily wage labourer mainly depending on MGNREGS work. Disability pension of Rs.1000/- PM is the only assured income for this family. The monthly ration under Public Distribution System helps to survive the family.

The Gaja cyclone that struck in November 2018 had brought added miseries in the lives of Vasantha. People with compassion tried to help her. Caritas India with the support of United Way Bengaluru/Chennai played the catalyst role. Thanks to the generous contribution of Mphasis. Caritas India team led by its manager, Dr John Arokiaraj along with Mr.Vijay Senthilkumar of United Way Chennai and with the support of field officers Chellapandi, Priyanka and Larina capacitated the local communities on  Participatory Disaster Risk Assessment (PDRA) tool.

The livelihood assessment tool was used in 13 target villages to identify 494 beneficiaries under different livelihood components. Through the application of this tool, the community identified Vasantha to be physically more disadvantaged and proposed her name as a beneficiary along with 4 other PwDs under Bunk Shop livelihood project. The bunk shop is a box-like prefabricated steel structure incorporating individual needs which can be installed in a pre-approved place once it is finalised. With this support, the disabled beneficiaries can run the shop to earn a decent and dignified living.

It is manufactured by an expert organisation based at Chennai called Tamil Nadu Differently Abled Federation Charitable Trust (TNDFC).

Once selected, Vasantha became the key person in deciding the business of having a grocery shop and Easanoor village as the location. She has also finalised the stocks to be kept in the shop, timing and type of service to be provided. This has cemented the sense of her ownership. The skills required to run grocery shop with inputs on procurement, inventory, marketing skills, cash-flow management, etc., were imparted in a two days training programme conducted at Vailankanni on the 11^th and 12^th of December 2019. Mr Deepak and Mr.Ramesh from  (TNDFC) facilitated the workshop. They have advised Vasantha to get quotations for the products she wants to sell so that fund management and comparative analysis of goods and services can be taught to her in a simplified manner.

Being a disabled person with limited mobility, Vasantha finds this as a good self-employment opportunity to commence a new life. Since the skills required are not extensive and there are no grocery shops in the near vicinity, she is confident that she can make a decent living out of this shop. TNDFC will be giving periodical handholding support through a structured training programme. “ I am confident that my family can become economically self-reliant and I can support my children’s education,” says this happy beneficiary. At this time of COVID 19 pandemic and the subsequent economic crisis, this project is going to serve as a blessing to Vasantha. For this widowed mother of two girl children, it is a good initiation towards a dignified way to earn sufficiently for a decent living.