Simple plumbing lightened her burden

We met up with Gajalakshmi as she was heading out to work in the fields, holding a scythe in one hand. As Chitra, the leader of her loan group was out at the fields already, Gajalakshmi agreed to chat with us for a few minutes. She walked us to her house, about 150m down a small path from the main road. She had taken a loan of Rs. 5000 to build a piped water connection for her home, and I wanted to see how it had impacted her and her family. When we started to talk, Gajalakshmi told me about a day in her life – she wakes up early and cooks for her husband and her 6-year-old kid. Then, she takes her goats out for grazing and works in the field all day before cooking and taking the goats out again in the evening. “Before getting my own piped connection, I had to walk to the public tap, carrying huge containers every day.” She explained that the public tap is located where we had met her, about 150m away. Though our walk was only a few minutes, I imagined how difficult it would have been for her to walk every day, especially with a humongous container full of water. When Gajalakshmi heard about GUARDIAN, she knew she wanted a loan so she could build a water connection and make her daily routine a little bit easier. With her own tap, she said performing tasks has become far more simpler and comfortable. She thanked Milaap lenders for helping her make things convenient.