Ujjivan Center Meeting 2

I was very excited to go to the Ujjivan center meetings. This is where you really get to see micro finance in action. The second meeting we went to was again very lively. Many more of these women were getting loans for business. Sometimes the businesses are new. More often they are able to expand or improve an existing business with a loan. The women we talked to at this meeting were getting loans for: several were for a flower business (selling flowers at a temple of flowers door to door), several of the women's husbands had tile businesses and they were able to get some equipment with the loan, there were a couple of education loans, some for home improvement, and some for family health issues.

One woman's story made us realize why Ujjivan is trying to provide health care options and life insurance for both the borrower and their husband. The woman had taken a loan out to pay for her husband's hospital care. Unfortunately he died 11 days before our visit. Hopefully her life insurance is in order. If it is, she will get more than enough to repay the loan and live on for a little while. If not, she will really struggle.