Ms. Puspha Rayamajhi from Gulmi used to work as a house wife before a decade. When asked to recall about the memories from her days as housewife she says there is nothing worth like remembering at those days. Her entire days would pass within the limited periphery and responsibilities of children, husbands, in-laws and her small farm. She had never thought about anything like being an entrepreneur or living on her own.

Life has some different plans and destiny for her. She started to feel some intuition within herself. “I no longer wanted to rely on my husband for everything I need and desire for. It used to hurt a lot when he denied something I asked for. It was logical for him, but I felt I should do something on my own.”– She shared with us.

She was just thinking what she could do on herself and one day she was passing by a dairy shop. She stopped by that shop and observed a number of costumers visiting by it. She consulted with her in-laws about opening a dairy shop but they refused her idea of doing business and being an entrepreneur. She thought of doing things on her own. “I now couldn’t stop myself from doing something for independence that I really wanted. I was rather ready to go beyond their will”– She says.

Turning back to the year of 2070 B.S where she bought a dairy farm, she said “It was really a big challenge to take over. If I wouldn’t be able to succeed in this sector, I would be left with no option than getting taunts from my family.” This zeal to success made her to work hard and stand any challenges on her way. She started her business by mortgaging her gold she had got as a wedding gift from her family. She paid a big interest upon the mortgaged gold and finally was able to repay all the loan. The success encouraged her to move ahead. She added two more machinery for processing milk in her dairy.

The business grew slowly and gradually, she has now good business coverage in her area. She has been able to provide part time employment to two of the people. The eight years after she had started the business she finds herself confident, independent and more self-esteem has been added to her. On her own words-“I get a respected position in my family, relatives circle and society. Had I not been able to sustain this business, I would have been of no worth to them”. She had been able to run her house, pay the education of her daughter abroad through the business.

She was connected to WEAN Rupandehi from 2 years back. Involving in this platform has helped her to extend her network and connection. The training from ILO mad her to realize her weak points in the business. The assessment of encompass reflected her poor financial health. The training of IYB trained her about the accounting modalities and book keeping. She has now started to keep the tracking of her assets, sales and purchase. “I didn’t bother calculating the monthly profit or loss in my business as I was gaining a good profit out of it.” But now she has realized how important it is to sustain the business in a longer run. She has also revised her selling price of the milk products after the training. Before the price were fixed by comparing the sales price in the nearby area but she has now fixed it by calculating her actual investment on the product.

She says- “I have also learnt about the need of formal contract of work agreement between employer and employee while working in the business. This makes both of us to take a proper conflict resolution process if any disputes occur in the future.” She extends her sincere gratitude towards ILO and FWEAN for providing this chance to participate in the training.

“I had never attended any training through phone. I have never thought that we can also take such trainings by using the cell phone. This training also has digitally empowered me for using zoom. This is really a big achievement for me”– she says.