The Story of Vimalbai

Let's take the story of Vimalbai Kodape – a woman living in the tribal community of Dhanakdevi in Jawati block outside of Chandrapur, Maharashtra. In 2010, her situation was dire. But by taking a holistic, 360-degree approach, ACF has helped her and her family so that they now thrive.

• Agriculture: By teaching her husband new, more efficient agricultural techniques, ACF helped him increase his productivity and profits.
• Water: By solving the water problems of the community and household, ACF helped increase agricultural production for the family and also free up time spent collecting water, so that Vimalbai could find other work.
• Skills: By training her son at ACF's SEDI, he could say goodbye to daily wages as a labourer and get a job as a welder – contributing Rs6500 per month to family income.
• Health: Through regular check-ups at the ACF mobile medical van and education for preventive health, sickness has reduced, which means health costs have declined and there is no impact on livelihoods.
• Women: By joining a local SHG established by ACF, Vimalbai learnt how to save and leverage the credit system of SHGs to help get her family out of crippling debt with local moneylenders. She also received training and now works as an Agricultural Extension Officer – training other farmers.
• Education: Because the local school is supported by ACF, her children receive a higher quality of education, which will enable them to go further in life and help the family.