MIRPURKHAS: JaswantKumar used to work at a charpoy shop.

Joining the four wooden beams and legs of the bed together, he would weave the colourful nylon ribbon acrossthelengthandbreadth ofthe frame.

Making 10 to 12 charpoys this way he would earn a daily wage of Rs500. Then one day he met a customer who, being impressed by Jaswant`s workmanship, asked him if he would like to own a charpoy business of his own? The customer worked with the Sindh Rural Support Organisation`s (SRSO) Poverty Reduction Programme. `He told me about SRSO`s interest-free loans, Jaswant, who pronounces SRSO like `sarson` [mustard], told Dawn.

`It took some careful costing on my part to apply for a 260,000 rupees loan to start my own busi-ness. Today, I am my own boss. I make the same amount I used to make after an entire day`s work on every charpoy that I make,` the young man beamed.

Hammaduddin of Gharibabad, Mirpurkhas, heard about SRSO from a friend. `I wanted to own my own business but I had no seed money. Then I borrowed Rs500,000 from SRSO to purchase sports goods from Hyderabad. I have opened a sports goods shop here in Mirpurkhas. It is giving me good returns,` said Hammaduddin.

Virma, a mother of seven children, whose husband sold earthenware pots, stitches school bags with zips, buttons and velcro fasteners on her old mechanical sewing machine.

She says that people from SRSO visited her home to tell her about their interest-free loans and skill training. `I started stitching school bags after receiving training for amonth about how to run my own business,` she said.

Teeja`s husband was in an accident which left him unable to earn a regular income for his family.

Teeja wanted to do something from her home as she was needed there to take care of her husband and their children.

`I knew embroidery and applique work, taught to me by my mother and grandmother. But I had no money. My children were also studying. I needed to do something quick as we were eating into whatever little savings we had. That was when I got a loan for Rs100,000 from SRSO. The training I received from them helped put me in touch with a market for my kind of skills.

Today, after taking orders for embroidery and applique work, I have been able to pay back the loan while also earning enough to run my house,` she said.

`Sindh Rural Support Organisation has many such successstories of empowering rural artisans,` said Muhammad Dittal Kalhoro, the Chief Executive Officer. `We are into harnessing people`s potential to fight poverty, he added.

He himself was drawn to the organisation due to its fine work. `I was working with PTCL in Hyderabad and Sukkur which was when I started hearing about SRSO.

It was the start of an affiliation.

Then in 2013 I joined SRSO. Since 2015 I have been running SRSO as CEO. When I arrived, SRSO had 400 employees. Now there are 2,500 employees,` he said.

`It is our job to tell more and more people with vision about our work. We work in all of Sindh`s districts. We offer training and we provide interest-free loans to individuals and companies,` he said.

Sky Garments Industry was a good model of a thriving business thanks to SRSO. Housed in a shop in a commercial area of Mirpurkhas,the company had workers busy sewing different parts of cargo shorts on their industrial machines. One was seen sewing together parts of pockets, the other was sewing zippers and another waist belts.

Narumal, a partner at a garment factory, said that they had heard of an organisation that gave interestfree loans. `We thought maybe we should find them and visit their office,` he smiled.

`At the time we had no idea of costs or where to get orders from.

But we knew so many people who were let off from one garment factory or the other. We wanted to give them work by opening a garment factory of our own,` said Narumal.

`SRSO helped us do that. Of course, they also had their conditions. First of all, they needed surety that the loan will be paid off with all the installments coming in time. Then they were helped by SRSO in getting orders. The cloth, thread, etc., all came from the cli-ent. We only prepared the orders, which came to us from foreign countries. Sometimes, we get orders for 7,000 pieces a month. And we get 60 per cent of the cost of each piece, he explained.

Sky Garments Industry borrowed Rs3 million from SRSO. They worked with 35 workers who were paid on a daily basis according to the work they did. Some were experts and some came as apprentices.

From the Rs30m borrowed, Rs1.9m were used for buying second-hand Juki machines. As they paid their loan installments, they also ungraded their factory. They were able to also install a solar system which helped them go completely off grid.

`We were able to pay off our entire loan in 22 months though we had been given 28 months to do that by SRSO. Now we are only making profits, while also providing employment,` said Narumal.