"Seeing them working and talking to them convinced me that I wanted to be a part of this."

Deepali Berde Tailor and Supervisor at Jivdani Mahila Mandal Cooperative.

Deepali had worked at a garment factory in the city before moving north after her marriage. Hearing about a possible new local cooperative, Deepali was intrigued enough to check out some already established MarketPlace groups. "Seeing them working and talking to them convinced me that I wanted to be a part of this." I completed the training and started working." The cooperative, Jivdani Mahila Mandal, was named after the nearby temple.

At first things went smoothly, as they registered the business, opened a bank account, trained the women and started production. "We thought this was the hard part," Deepali says ruefully. However, the elected supervisor proved to be a poor leader and teammate who was uncommunicative and manipulative. Because of her, the group was in disarray and missing deadlines. After voting her out they needed a lawyer to separate her from the cooperative's funds.

Afterwards, Deepali was asked to step in as the new supervisor. "We have gone through a lot but have also learned a lot and together we are optimistic about the future."