ECLOF India – 41-year-old Ms. Kalaiselvi started out small back in 2015: as an ambulant trader selling tea, coffee and pastries in the street from a tricycle. Through her women’s group, she borrowed 150 dollars from ECLOF to buy more stock. Her income was essential for the family of four as her husband was a helper in a furniture store earning meagre and irregular income.
Through hard work and ingenuity she managed to get contracts with offices in her neighborhood delivering hot drinks and food every morning and evening. Her recognized work later got her into the government’s “Women Entrepreneur scheme” and a sales space in a government building at subsidized rent. This raised her visibility with customers and boosted her business.
To meet growing demand, she expanded the business with further loans from ECLOF and hired four women: two make pastries and two deliver food and beverages. Ms. Kalaiselvi has loyal customers that are fond of her product quality, speed of service and her pleasant and clean shop. Today, her business flourishes. With the income earned she has improved her family’s daily diet, started constructing a family home and even sent her children to better schools: her eldest son is in graduate school and her daughter is an undergraduate in medicine. She is proud of having earned all this from her own hands’ work—and with a little help from ECLOF.
