LUNGI BEHN
Lungi behn and her husband supported their family of eleven with farming. This being a seasonal occupation in their tribal village, they could not manage even two meals a day. Through Dreams Foundation, Lungi behn invested in a flour mill for Rs.60.000. No one in their village had a flour mill and the villagers travelled all the way to another village to grind their grains. So, this initiative worked very well. It brought all the villagers to their doorstep to grind flour. The income from the flour mill allows Lungi behn to provide sustenance and support to her family throughout the year.
Khushboo
KHUSHBOO is a bright girl who grew up in a simple, hard-working family. Her mother is a tailor, and her father works as an office-peon. Khushboo, through her own initiative, started learning computer skills as she was going to college. With a loan of 29,000 rupees from Dreams Foundation, she bought a laptop, which helped her earn additional income through data entry jobs.
In two years, she mastered enough computer skills to become a computer teacher at an NGO “Manav Sadhana”. During this time, she became familiar with accounting software and has moved on to complete her post-graduate degree in accounting. She has a good accounting job at a university. The laptop empowered Khushboo to follow her dreams. She has also repaid back the entire loan to Dreams Foundation.
ASHA BEHN
Asha behn is a widow with two young kids and no family support. She left her kids home alone every morning to go work. They went to school hungry and did not get a meal until the afternoon when their mother came back. Through Dreams Foundation, Asha behn bought a cow. This allows her to give her two children wholesome milk every day. The additional income has allowed her to spend a few extra hours at home with her children in the mornings. It has changed their lives.
Hemangini
Hemangini was a young teen when she lost her mother due to medical malpractice. Since then, she took over her mother’s role in running the household and continued her schooling. When she graduated high school, Hemangini worked to sustain her family and cover her younger brother's education. She also started taking evening courses in fashion design at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and finished her certification. With a relentless zeal to succeed and with the dream to give her family a better life, she took a one lakh rupee loan from Dreams and started her own fashion label, AABHLO. Hemangini balances a day job with fashion designing and dreams of her label growing big someday soon.
LALITA BEHN AND MAHESHBHAI
Lalita behn has been a rag picker for many years. Maheshbhai, her husband, lost his arm in an accident. They both work hard to feed their family which includes three children. But the rental for a pedal rickshaw is Rs.30-40 a day. This amounts to about 1000 rupees a month or one lakh in ten years - for a pedal rickshaw that costs just Rs.9000! With the help of Dreams Foundation, Lalita behn and Maheshbhai invested in their own pedal rickshaw. This freed up funds for them to help support their family.
Infact, Dreams is distributing modified and good-quality pedal-rickshaws to deserving people. The beneficiary will pay Rs.30- Rs.40 a day initially. In less than one year, he/she will own the vehicle. We hope to give 500 pedal-rickshaws within the next two or three years. A gift that will change the life of many hardworking and needy families instantly.