Eat a poppadom - help a women’s cooperative
By Sunny Hundal | 14 March 2009, 09:57
I thought this story might put a smile on our reader’s faces. BBC Online recounts the story of a group of semi-literate women in India who set up a poppadom factory 50 years ago. The women only cooperative now employs over 45,000 and turns over $100m a year.
Jyoti Naik, who runs Lijjat’s head office in a Mumbai suburb, joined the co-operative 40 years ago. She says it is the women’s sense of financial independence that has made a small enterprise into a big business.Love the story, still not too hot on poppadoms though :)“These women work here to help raise their children and be financially independent,” Ms Naik says
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Laura said:
Shameless plugs coming up:
If you don't like poppadoms, or want to do a bit more to help women in the developing world, try lending direct to a woman entrepreneur using www.kiva.org or www.myc4.com. You can lend as little as $5 on myc4.com, and although there is risk you generally get your money back plus a bit of interest. There's a bit more to it than that, especially on myc4, so read the FAQs before you sign up, but it's really worthwhile and I'd recommend it. And you can pick who you lend to and what projects you lend to, so you can see the real people you're benefitting.
So: help out other women, at little or no cost, with possibility of (very small) profit.
Posted on 14 March 2009 at 12:01 PM
Jess McCabe said:
Fantastic; I wonder if they are sold in the UK at all, and under what brand?
Posted on 14 March 2009 at 12:22 PM