Name: Rama laxmi
Birthdate: 1982
Rama Laxmi's parents were both field workers and she has 4 sisters. She has never attended school. Growing her family did field work from 7am-6pm and they ate rice and curry for lunch and dinner. Her father earned less than $1 per day and as children they were able to earn $.25 a day for their work. All 7 members of her family lived in a 1 room home.
Rama Laxmi was married at age 13 and now has 3 sons, 13, 11 and 10. About 2 years ago, her husband died of a heart attack. She says that her greatest need is to earn money for her sons' schooling and to pray for their health and future.
It is often said, “If you feed a man a fish, you can feed him for a day, but if you teach a man how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”
We look for avenues to equip women and men in poverty with the opportunity to start a business of their own that can help them provide fortheir basic needs of food, shelter, and education for their families for a lifetime.
Their businesses also invest into large projects we are doing in their communities and throughout the world.
In 2012 we launched our first sewing microbusiness training, teaching 21 impoverished women how to start a sewing business of their own. Through donations from Proceeds for Poverty and other one-time gifts, we buy a sewing machine and iron for each trainee.
We train them in simple business principles and sewing skills that will help them begin a seamstress business in their communities and villages.
We also train them to make products for GPPD that we will give away for a donation. Once they earn a portion of the cost of their machines by making a few products for us, we then pay them for each additional product they make.
The proceeds we receive from any donations for the products go toward a larger project to help people in poor communities throughout the world, a fee for labor, shipping the product (if neccesary) and the cost of the materials.