“Empowering women is a prerequisite to creating a good nation, when women are empowered, a society with stability is assured”.
Don Bosco Anbu Illam works in 20 slums and 70 villages in Salem and Namakkal districts for the development of the vulnerable community. We empower the community through around 100 Self-help groups. Through our Salem, Rasipuram and Vennandhur outreach centres, we have provided SEED money, Microenterprise development support for the Self-Help Group member’s livelihood development.
These self-help groups were formed among survivors from the backgrounds of textile industry workers, garment workers, and marginalised women who are without any regular livelihood programmes and live in extreme poverty. It aimed to inculcate a culture of saving and group formation for income generation, which would lead to self-reliance, restore dignity, and empower women. It was also intended to prevent money lenders who came from outside with the objective of exploiting these women. Through this support, women were motivated to start new businesses like tailoring, vegetable shops, water can businesses, chilly centres, poultry rearing, sewing machine businesses, etc. Through this support, they earned 8000 to 10000 per month. So far, 246 women have benefited from this support.