Poultry Farmer
(AKINA)
Akina is 50 and is married with seven daughters. She and her husband Hajrat used to work as agricultural labourers, earning about £1 each per day. Hajrat also owns a pedal van that he was using to take vegetables from the farms where he worked to the local market. In total, their income amounted to about Rs.3,600 (£36) a month. In 2013, the pedal van broke and they could not afford to fix it. They were also already in debt to the local money-lender because of money needed to buy basic food for the family.
In October 2013, Akina heard about Shivia’s Poultry Development Services through our local Livelihood Service Provider in the area, Saumen Biswas. Akina registered for the programme and started her training in poultry rearing and received her first 10 chicks. Since then she has built her farm to over 100 adult birds and is earning a regular income from the sale of eggs and chickens at the local markets. She has been able to provide a dowry for three of her daughters and has also paid for the repairs to Hajrat’s pedal van. He is now earning over Rs 400 a day using the van for deliveries again. Akina has high hopes of paying for their grandson’s educational expenses and will soon pay off all the debts they previously accrued before she became a poultry farmer.
“Before this programme we were struggling to cope and owed a lot to the village money-lender. So much has changed for us now we are earning money from raising chickens.”
Akina’s story is a wonderful example of how Shivia’s Poultry Development Services is an enabling factor that allows poor families to change their lives in a positive and permanent way.
