© 2023 Dr Margaret Sheppard

Enterprises - Micro Businesses

Members are encouraged to generate extra income by developing business enterprises with the help of small loans from their JBS branch. There are different loans for different types of enterprise. E.G fishing loans enable members to borrow to buy fishing nets to enable their fishing labourer husbands to own a greater share of the catch, thus providing a surplus above daily family needs that they can then sell, creating savings at the JBS against hard times or to reinvest in their business enterprise. Many of these fishermen  with the help of small loans and resultant savings have now managed to buy their own boats!

Others have started small shops at the end of their yards. The small JBS loans enable them to buy stock wholesale, retailing at a small profit to their neighbours. Some of these small local shops have now developed into large shops in towns or along the main roads serving an ever increasing customer base.

(Further details and examples  of these JBS Enterprises and Businesses can be found in the section on “Occupations”

https://www.sheppard.me.uk/sri-lanka/occupations) Many of these are JBS Enterprises started and developed with JBS loans.)

JANASHAKTHI BUSINESSES AND ENTERPRISES -

Examples of the economic development of members

The major aim of the Janashakthi Programme is to promote self-reliance and  economic development. In order to achieve this, the members are encouraged not only lo develop their own resources but to develop new economic enterprises. Through the system of agricultural loans members are encouraged to develop their rice paddies and chenas so that they may be self-sufficient in food (a traditional Sri Lankan ideal) andalso produce a surplus that they can sell to build up their economic resources. Members of all JBSs I visited had utilized these agricultural loans.  Whilst walking along the tracks through the rice paddies, members could be seen busy in their fields. - In Dehigahalanda area they were engaged in harvest using the light from strip lights in order to thresh the rice through the night. Families were co-operating and helping each other as they have done for centuries.

In several areas I was shown chenas where members had taken loans to develop a crop e.g. red onions, chilies, “green leaves”, white onions, pumpkins, melons, tomatoes. Or they may have planted an orchard. with bananas, papaya, pomegranates, etc. One member at Bundala  had planted about an acre where she grew medicinal plants to supply, the local edura (traditional healers). There were several examples such as at Dehigahalanda and Galwella, where members of a small group and their families had developed a communal chena pooling their resources and labour and then sharing the products to generate steady incomes selling the surplus in the local markets. Up in Kudagoda, Middeniya the husbands of two members were busily sorting out their dried tobacco that they had grown on their joint venture. When I visited, they were sacking it up ready for despatch. Several of the local  buses I travelled on were used to transport these crop surpluses to markets. Walking along the lanes and tracks we often overtaken by a two-wheeled tractor loaded with produce which was being taken to market.

One of the aims of the Janashakthi Programme is to develop alternative sources of income i.e. non agricultural ones, especially to encourage those that provide goods or services  to satisfy local demand thus cutting down on the necessity for expensive imports and thus saving valuable foreign exchange.

JBS and RWDS members are very proud of their achievements in developing their business enterprises and when I visited a JBS or attended an RWDS meeting, I was always taken to see business enterprises in that area, In all I visited about 120 small business enterprises run by members. They were at varying stages of development - some being very new and others more

Established. The members had been enabled through the discussions and talks at meetings and the JBS loans to develop and expand.  Some members through the development of their rice paddies and chenas had used money gained through the sales of surplus crops to develop their businesses as an additional source of income and so had not needed small business or enterprise loans, or because they were utilising natural raw materials or waste in their products, hey did not need loans. Other members had used loans not only to start up but also to expand. (That is why a study focusing only on an examination of loans granted for small businesses and self-employment could not reflect the true extent of members' enterprise initiatives.)

In all the JBSs I visited the greater proportion of loans had been granted for agriculture (and fishing in the relevant areas) but the areas I visited had many small enterprises. These enterprises covered a very varied range of types demonstrating an impressive degree of members’ initiative. This shows  how hard working and energetic members are once they can be relieved of the burden  and side effects of poverty and hopelessness caused by a relentless poverty cycle and problems of ever spiraling debt. JBS members had shown great business acumen in either fulfilling a local need or in utilizing a particular locally available resource.

A JBS loan helped this woman to grow medicinal herbs

This 5-group all took JBS loans to develop a communal chena

A JBS loan helped this member develop her chena

The 5-group worked with their families on their chena. After harvest they prepared the crops to sell at the local market thus generating further group and individual savings

Husbands of two members sacking up their dried tobacco for despatch. JBS loans helped them to grow the crop.

In the areas near the sea or the big tanks (reservoirs), members have utilized the Fishing Loans to buy nets or sometimes even boats for their husbands or sons. This ownership entitles them to a greater- share of the catch, so that they, not only receive enough' to feed their families but have a surplus which they can sell. These surplus fish, may be sold locally or to other member’s  husbands or sons who have wholesale fish businesses. These salesmen commonly operate these businesses from the backs of their bicycles or motorbikes. During my fieldwork, I visited many members' houses and nowhere did there now seem to be a shortage of basic foods.

Godawaya Fishing Beach - many members husbands, sons and brothers were fishermen so JBS Fishing loans were very popular enabling the members to accrue savings as fishermen qualified for a greater share of catches and so could sell the surplus fish.

A JBS loan enabled this husband to set up as a trader buying surplus fish at the beach and selling it inland.

Carpentry

This small group of members from the Katuwana District are selling their wooden crafted furniture door-to-door around Godawaya Village in the South of the District.

A house situated along the main Amabalantota- Hambantota Road enabled this member to take advantage of a small business loan and make and sell cement plants pots and ornaments. Business later developed into also making decorative cement verandah posts etc.

Cement Pots

You Tube Video Links:

Micro Credit & Janashakthi Development Bank

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmSAjAeeGOY&list=PLLU72I2J_0VHibK6zde0ur7I0BbQXlTvb

Easy Money - Sri Lankan Style

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8emuMT5dpEU&list=PLLU72I2J_0VHibK6zde0ur7I0BbQXlTvb&index=4

Stone crushing

Utilizing the local stone resources in Godawaya, a common enterprise was to buy a load of dynamited rocks with the help of a JBS loan. The rocks were then hammered them down into smaller and smaller sizes. The original load (now crushed) is then re-sold either as road making stone or for foundation stone.

Stone quarries

Several members and their families of ALL ages, are engaged in stone crushing

Brick Making

This is a popular enterprise for members who live in areas with suitable clay soils and a ready supply of water. They dig the soil, mix it with water and some rice straw, then form the mixture into wooden brick moulds. Then are then sun dried and then fired in a homemade brick kiln. This tends to be an activity outside the monsoon seasons. If they live in paddy field areas they obtain rice straw after threshing, or waste rice husks from a rice mill. The increasing wealth of JBS members who were then enabled to build or improve their houses created a demand for bricks. One member had secured an order for 50,000 bricks which would take her and her husband about 3 months to complete. (The going rate was 850 rupees - approx. £12) per 1000 bricks. So she was very pleased). A 5-group had formed a group brick enterprise, working together and sharing the profits.

JBS members’ brick making enterprises. The paddy field location has a plentiful supply of water from the irrigation ditches and rice straw for mixing with the clay and firing the bricks in the kiln.

5- group brick making enterprises.

When Housing Loans became available by members’ suggestions, many JBS members took them to build more substantial houses.They would then as funds from savings became available improve their housing.

Traditional mud and coconut thatch house. JBS member is storing the bricks for new house under the roof

This member is building a more substantial house bit by bit. Windows and doors, plastering and general finishing will come later as she accrues more income. Her new tile roof and fired brick walls are much less likely to collapse during seasonal storms.

Rope Making

This is made from coconut fibres in areas where there is a plentiful supply of coconuts. When the fibres are strip from the outer shell, they are first soaked then “spun” into lengths. Then using a wheel they are twisted into string. Several strands of string can be twisted together again to make thicker gauges. The coconut string and rope is used everywhere..

Making joss sticks after school

Oil lamps from old light bulbs

Office waste becomes pill containers

Weaving grass sleeping mat

Basket making

Following a short training course in India, this member started up a small family business with JBS loan to make coconut mats, dying  the coconut string to produce the coloured patterns.

Coconut rope making is a popular 5-group enterprise. It requires several people to operate the machine and feed in the roughly “spun” fibres

Member took loan to enable her husband to buy the rope wholesale and then sell to shops to retail.

Coconut Thatching Sheets

This is another popular 5-group enterprise in areas where coconut fronds and water are available. The fronds are soaked in e.g. an irrigation ditch, then split in half with a sharp knife. Then woven into sheets which are then sold on for shading, kitchen roofing, privacy screening for washing areas etc.

These examples represent only a very small selection of JBS members’ various enterprises and demonstrate are imaginative and innovative they are helping by the pooling and exchanging of ideas at meetings.

Fishing

Chena Cultivation

Small Shops -

These were a favourite enterprise often starting with a small loan to buy stock wholesale household necessities and retail at a small profit at a stall on the edge of their yard to neighbours thus saving them  bus fares and time consuming journey into town. Many of these enterprises that started as little more than a homemade stall have grown into successful businesses with branches!

These small shops served the needs of their neighbours. The school boy (a JBS member’s son) in the right hand photo, managed the shop and expanded into 3 shops, supplied his sitser’s dowry and married himself.

Small shop near main road selling coconut for refreshment

Cooks breakfasts for hungry returning night fishermen