Aadhar, which means “support” in Nepali, is our savings and credit program that has been operating for more than 13 years. With the passing of time, the number of members increased, and the services needed to be expanded. We established “Hamro Aadhar” to run as a co-operative that also provides micro-credit loans with low interest without any collateral (group guarantee) to single women and marginalized women by the group of single women members of Women for Human Rights (WHR) in March 2066 B.S. under the Co-operation Act 2048.
1. What is Hamro Aadhar?
Hamro Aadhar operates and contributes towards the economic empowerment of marginalized women and single women through enhancing financial accessibility. It caters to all women—unmarried, married, and single—who are registered members of WHR. Priority goes towards single women (widows) since they are the most marginalized of the group, but others also receive support through this program. It is an easy and simple credit-saving technique that has helped many rebuild their lives again. We and the single women group have been playing a great role by participating in the saving and credit programs. On the one hand, with small savings, a large amount of money gets collected; on the other hand, the loan has been disbursed on behalf of personal and group guarantees, which is helping to change the livelihood of its members through income-generating activities. The Aadhar Saving and Credit program has greatly raised the self-confidence and level of independence of single women,as many of them are now involved in self-sustaining activities like livestock farming, agro-farming, mushroom growing, catering, grocery and tailoring shops, and cart shops, among many others.
2. What does it seek to accomplish?
It seeks to provide financial support to the marginalized and single women groups so that they can sustain their lives by taking loans without collateral.
3. How does it define its business (services)?
Aadhar is a cooperative that is operated for and with single women groups and is ready to serve those single women and their families towards economic empowerment through saving and credit program.
4. Who does it seek to serve?
It has been operating to serve single women and their family members for their social well-being and to promote entrepreneurship.
5. What are the critical success factors?
The Aadhar special program promotes sustainable development by incorporating economic, social, and environmental capacity into the expansion interventions through microcredit interventions that create linkages in the community.
- Even during the cases and situations of the disaster, Aadhar has continued the support through small-scale support to the single women groups to revive the lost livelihood opportunities and the start of entrepreneurship.
- Hamro Aadhar provides loans with low interest without any collateral (group guarantee) to all women who wish to set up small businesses in their micro-credit program.
- As a part of the knowledge and skill building, Hamro Aadhar also provides workshops, training, and guidance for effective saving methods and facilitates groups to run savings and credit in the respective groups and document them.
6. Who are the critical actors in the business network?
- Members
- Shareholders
7. What are the critical measurements?
- Regulations and policies of the Cooperative Department
- Members satisfaction regarding services
- Easy and reliable service
8. How will these measurements connect to the critical actors?
- Today, Hamro Aadhar runs in six districts of the country, where all the single women groups of the respective district committee are leading it through.
- Hamro Aadhar is also running in close collaboration with the Single Women Entrepreneur program, which is another program of WHR for the skill development and income generation of single women.
- Many single women across the districts have received seed money and a revolving fund from Hamro Aadhar to implement the learned skills into business opportunities. The other different loans are also provided at a reasonable interest rate.
9. If the mission succeeds, how will the company stand?
- Members socioeconomic well-being will be improved.
- This helps with entrepreneurship and generates economic and livelihood opportunities for the sustainable and economic well-being of its members in their community. Mission
- to provide appropriate services that are relevant for improving the socioeconomic well-being of the members.
- To promote entrepreneurship among members that would help generate economic and livelihood opportunities for helping sustain the economic well-being of the co-operative and the rest of the community. Vision
- to improve its economic status by providing qualitative financial products and services to its members.
- To provide financial support and services to the poor and marginalized to participate in income-generating enterprises to diminish poverty and upgrade their economic situation
Objectives of Hamro Aadhar
- To provide loans to single women lacking assets for collateral under the group guarantee
- To teach members the values of saving and credit
- To establish a feeling of cooperation among members and habituate for savings
- To increase the access of single women to income-generating sources through micro-credit programs
- To promote collectivism for the economic and social enhancement of people.
- To provide access to conduct productive, skilled, and income-generating activities through microloans and credit programs.
- To organize skill-oriented trainings, workshops, and orientation programs for the socio-economic empowerment of members.
- To collect the savings and investments from the operational members and provide loans for different purposes at reasonable interest
Strategy
- To increase the number of members and help them with saving habits.