Ganga has been involved in the tailoring business since 2013. Initially she had taken training on tailoring in order to make clothes for her infant but gradually her interest grew and she took this profession seriously. She likes to make new clothes for people and tries out different designs. She believes clothes play a huge role in enhancing an individual’s personality and she feels happy to be able to contribute to building confidence in people through her clothes. She makes clothes for kids and adults both. She would like to take more courses on fashion designing and grow her business.

Disaster Experience 
Ganga shares that the pandemic was something she had never experienced before and had never thought that it could impact people’s life at this greater level. She was not only scared for  her and her family’s health but greatly worried for her business. Due to nationwide lockdown business was affected hugely. Ganga didn’t make new clothes for a year. There was no business at all because everyone was scared for their safety and were buying only essential items. Each household suffered from a financial crisis which led to a decrease in business.  All the clothes she had made were shelved and Ganga was worried that her clothes would be out of fashion when things got better.

 This disaster was a completely shocking experience and has made people aware that one has to be prepared for anything in life and specially has taught everyone the importance of being able to manage the risks.

Ganga was happy to get the opportunity to be part of Udhyami Utthan and  get training on ‘Building Resilient Businesses’.

“Fostering Resilience of Women-Led Businesses (including home-based women producers) and Consumers” is a project being implemented by Thulo.Com and Enterprise for Management, Economic Reform, and Gender Equality (EMERGE). The project is supported by United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Tayar Nepal - Improved Disaster Risk Management Project and also contributes to Udhyami Utthan (UU - https://udhyamiutthan.com/about-us/ ), an entrepreneurship empowerment initiative.

Experience as a Project Beneficiary
Ganga happily shares her experience of being a project beneficiary and learning various techniques of building a sustainable business. Ganga feels blessed to be able to gain knowledge from the experts, especially sessions on Business Development Management and Digital Literacy. Ganga continues, “ I enjoyed the session that included marketing as this made me aware of the broader perspective on marketing the products and services. I learned about the core elements of marketing that one has to consider in order to grow their business.”

According to Ganga, digital literacy is the training she should have taken earlier because then she would have been able to market her products through social media while staying at home during lockdown. She has realized that e-commerce is something that is going to be an essential part of doing business as Nepal is one of the disaster-prone countries and no one knows when and what kind of disaster may happen. 

Interaction with banks and insurance companies was interesting as this gave her clarity on what kind of schemes are available and who all are eligible to apply.

She feels fortunate that through an online platform she was able to learn about managing the disaster risks. The overall training package has definitely built her confidence in planning better for her business.

Future Plan
Ganga plans to follow the things she has learnt during the training. She wants to grow her fashion business and wishes to remain in the market for a long time. Therefore, she will give her best to implement the knowledge she has acquired. She wishes to continue her association with Thulo.Com and Udhyami Utthan as she wants to learn more about e-commerce and running a sustainable business.

Ganga is a home-based producer based in Kavre.
Visit her Online Shop at Thulo.com/uu