….In continuation of what I did after I reached affected villages:
These are the 2 people (the woman in black Indian clothes and the guy in middle wearing white shirt) without whom I could not have done anything. They drove me around and did the translation for me since I could not understand villager’s language.
Trying to figure out the next step, we went to a private weaving society to get an estimate of the amount needed to fix a loom. We also found out the monthly amount earned by a weaver and whether there is a loan schema for weavers. When it came to loans, villagers were used to free loans and most of the times, close to elections, government
will forgive their loans.
On one hand I wanted to help them on other hand I never believed in free money. My belief is people don’t appreciate the help or the money if it’s given for free to them. I decided to setup a micro loan payment scheme where all those weavers who receive money have to pay a small amount back. To my surprise, some of them refused any kind of help on those terms. But I knew what I wanted to do so I decided to help only those who were willing to help themselves. Also I setup the system so that weavers receive the looms instead of getting money directly. Best of all I could help not only one but help 12 weavers establish their livelihoods one more time.
All those grueling flights and drives from San Francisco to these villages seemed worth it when I captured the smiles of 12 weavers whose families I helped.
