It's all about progress - BRAC volunteer Drew Kinder reports from Sri Lanka

Drew Kinder, a long-time volunteer and friend of BRAC, first in Uganda, recently volunteered with BRAC's programs in Sri Lanka and Aghanistan. Below is a post about a BRAC borrower he met in Sri Lanaka.


For 33 year old Champika, an agricultural entrepreneur in the Kurenegala Distirict of central Sri Lanka, progress means breaking free from financial dependence on your husband. She was so intent on independence that she opted to take a microfinance loan not from the government run Samurdi Bank where her husband works as an assistant manager, and instead opted to do business with BRAC where she could sign for a no-collateral loan in her own name.

Champika is the owner/operator of Kathmina Mushrooms, where she grows and packages white and black mushrooms for distribution to local food outlets. The mushrooms are packed in 200 gram sealed see-thru plastic bags with a paper label identifying the Kathmina brand. One bag retails for 35 Rs. ($.30) and costs Chanpika about 15 Rs. to produce.

BRAC and Champika met through BRACs survey process, when the Branch Manager of a newly established BRAC Branch in the Kurunegala Area came down her dusty rural lane conducting house-to-house interviews to find poor women in need of financing for small businesses. Champika had just completed a training course on growing mushrooms at Peradeniaya Agricultural College, a 5 hour round trip bus ride from her home. She needed a loan to get started.

She joined the BRAC village organization and was granted a no-collateral start-up loan of 20,000 Rs. ($175) which she used to buy building materials for two 10 X 12 ft. mushroom houses and one dark room as well as ingredients for her first batch of mushrooms. Her husband and a friend built the two houses. A windowless space in her 3 room mud brick house was converted into a mushroom dark room.

Chanpika is a very bright woman. A grade 11 plus graduate, you quickly gain respect for her intelligence as she methodically explains the complicated process of growing mushrooms. It starts with four basic ingredients. After completing 15 discrete steps, each of which must be done correctly and in sequence, she produces a crop of mushrooms which can be harvested every other day for about 3 months.

Chandika has been very successful. Demand exceeds her ability to produce mushrooms in her two mushroom houses. Once she pays off her first BRAC loan, she intends to apply for another loan to build a third mushroom house and purchase additional raw materials.

Chandika has boundless energy. This mother of three; a 6 month old baby, a 2 ½ year old girl, and a 6 year old boy in school, began a second income generating project in her spare time. Using cash from mushroom sales, she purchased cloth and a sewing machine. Now she and another mother from the village organization sell clothing in the weekly village market.

Thanks to her BRAC loan, a mushroom brand named Kathmina, and unlimited drive and determination, Chandika is well on her way of realizing her potential of financial independence. That’s real progress, or as they say in her native Sinhalese language, real Kathmina.

You can read more about Drew's travels in Asia on his blog.