Breaking ground as a new kind of entrepreneur
Varsha Dhurve has two passions: educating her children and helping other women avoid the hardships she's endured. Both have motivated her in the decade since her husband died.
Left penniless at age 23 after five years of marriage, she began selling vegetables, earning just enough to support her two small children. After scraping along for several years, she used a government microloan to set up a mobile vegetable cart, and eagerly began searching for other ways to increase her income. The Grameen Mitra program, developed by Grameen Foundation, was a natural fit for her go-getter personality.
Starting with neither financial knowledge nor digital experience, she is now a certified Grameen Mitra able to train other women in digital and financial literacy, and to help them save, pay bills, receive payments, transfer money and more, all via their mobile phones. She mixes this training with hard-knocks lessons of life as she advises young and old to invest their money wisely.
Becoming a Mitra has also helped Varsha’s vegetable business. She’s used her Mitra-assigned QR code to enable village customers to pay her electronically instead of with cash. Young people are enthusiastic, while older patrons need a bit more coaxing. She isn’t worried though. She looks ahead with confidence and hopes to keep building her business, to ensure that her children get the education they need to succeed.
Be part of her breakthrough.