Small gifts create lasting change.
When you drive into Radhika’s town, you see the factories right away. Big buildings with piles of clay lamps stacked outside. That’s where she learned this work, pressing lamps for hours for someone else’s business.
It was steady work, but it wasn’t her own.
At some point, Radhika started thinking about doing it differently.
“Why not buy my own machine? Having my own business is better than going and working for someone else.”
Around that time, she joined the Sevvandhi Self-Help Group and went through business training. It helped her think about the work she already knew how to do as something she could own.
She took a 24,000 rupee loan, about $260 (USD), and bought a clay press.
Now she works from home. About five hours a day, making around 5,000 lamps. Her small oil lamps are used in temples, ceremonies, and festivals.
She also built a workspace onto the front of her house with two other women. Corrugated metal, steel and timber. Nothing fancy, but it works. Each woman has her own machine. They sit side by side, pressing different kinds of lamps, sending them out to be fired, then selling them on their own.
Some days it’s small household orders. Around festivals, it’s thousands at a time. There are a lot of festivals, which helps. But she’s already thinking about how to sell more when it’s not festival season.
What she really likes is being home. She likes that when her sons come back from school, she’s there. They’re happy about that. And now she can buy what they need. Backpacks. School clothes. Basic things.
Her husband looks at what she’s built and says, “She is perfect.”
Radhika had the courage to change her life. With a small loan and the support of her group, Radhika transformed her life. Small gifts create lasting change.
Video: Radhika makes clay lamps in her workshop.