VSSM helped Rekhaben Devipujak to fulfill her dream to have her own house

Rekhaben Devipoojak ogot her own house

Rekhaben of Denotified triebe with the house of her dream. 

“Av ame lokoni jem re’vanu shikhi jya. Pe’la to na’va dho’vani y hamaj na’ti padti. Sapramo oy-thi-to padyo reta’ta. Hu n ma’ro ghar valo fugga n budhdhina baal vech’ta. Hakhal-Dakhal badhu hede jatu, pan Maheshbhai malya k nai? Tyarti amar ji’van j badlaai jyu.”

“We have now learnt to live like other people. Previously we had no sense of even taking bath or anything! We used to move our hut here to there and stayed on. I and my husband used to sell balloons and Cotton-Candy. It was a kind of irregular life-style until we met Maheshbhai but after meeting him, our life changed.”

During 2009, when we met Rekhabahen Devipujak, she was not having Voter card, Ration Card or any other document that may be helpful to recognize as the citizen of India. Maheshbhai made her understand that life cannot be lead only on the balloons and candy selling. You can start a new business like selling vegetables to fulfill your financial needs. Rekhaben showed enthusiasm and she thought to take chances with the new business. ‘Vicharta Samuday Samarthan Manch’ helped her by donating a vegetable hand cart costing Rs. 5500. She was worried that if the business may not be well but then slowly and gradually it was streamlined. Her courage to work was boosted with it and she also got in to making hearth out of asbestos sheets. She also did seasonal farming on a partnership basis and earned 37,000 profit in it. Rekhaben’s hard work brought her to enough financial stability to dream for her own house. 

Rekhaben Devipujak previously ,with her children 

She asked for Rs. 10,000 loan and VSSM helped her by providing interest free loan to buy her dream home. She bought house under government scheme. Nearly after the 8 years of struggle, Rekhaben has now her own house and financial stability. 

This help made her sensitive towards her handicapped brother in law’s family which earlier she could not even think because of her own struggle to earn enough to lead her own life well. She now feels so confident that she is able to earn well and may take additional responsibility to help other family members. This is how the sense of helping others has extended in her life. 

VSSM has this strength to help the enthusiastic Rekhaben who struggle to lead life just because of the lack of easy financial help. Our donor’s help becomes the backbone of someone’s life in various people’s life. 

50 nomadic tribes will have shelter on their head before this monsoon at Deesa..

Homes for nomadic families in Deesa….

Recently, the Municipal Corporation of Deesa town pledged to allot 300 square feet houses to 50 homeless families scattered around the town, living in shanties and hutments. The catch however, was each family needed to deposit Rs. 60,000. Now the issue here was that these families never have so much money and from where to get that kind of amount to pre-book the houses. The president of the municipal corporation is the very  compassionate Shri Pravinbhai Mali, who tried to secure Rs. 45,000 from the Department of Social Welfare for each of these families. The families felt each of them would be able to mobilize Rs. 5,000 but requested VSSM for a loan of Rs. 10,000 each.

In the picture – the nomadic communities with their million dreams….  

“We will pay off the loan as early as we can manage to, but please give us loan, we do not want to miss this opportunity. We do not want to spend anymore monsoons in these shanties, in such appalling living conditions!!” was the collective appeal.

We had a meeting with these families applying for the houses, by then each of the appicant had visited the site atleast thrice!! “Ben, please ensure we get the house soon.” During the entire time we were in the meeting they kept on repeating the same thing, need for a loan and to move into a pucca house as early as possible. We have decided to give them the loans but the problem we are starring at is limited financial resources as compared to the increased number of applicants!!

Suddenly the nomadic families of Deesa town have witnessed a silver lining amidst  their  nightmarish existence. The efforts of Deesa Municipal Corporation, Shri. Pravinbhai Mali, the well-wishers of VSSM, our team member Mahesh have all been instrumental in enabling these families think of realizing their dream. We will remain grateful to each of you for the support and to the members of nomadic communities who have helped us realize our purpose in life.

પોતાના ઘરનો હરખ કોને ના હોય. સદીઓથી લબાચા લઈને રઝળ્યા કરનારાની ઘરની ઝંખના પુરી થવામાં હોય અથવા તે પુરી કરવામાં નિમિત્ત બનવાનું થાય તે પણ મોટા સુખ જેવું. ડીસામાં જુદી જુદી જગ્યાએ છાપરાં કરીને રહેનારા 50 ઘરવિહોણા પરિવારોને 300 સ્કે. ફૂટનું ઘર આપવાનો સંકલ્પ ડીસા નગરપાલિકાએ સેવ્યો. 

પરિવારો ગરીબ. નગરપાલિકામાં ઘર મેળવવા રુ. 60,000 ભરવાના. આટલી મૂડી પાસે હોત તો જોઈતું તુ શું? નગરપાલિકાના પ્રમુખ એવા ખુબ લાગણીશીલ પ્રવિણભાઈએ સમાજ કલ્યાણમાંથી રુ.45,000ની સહાય અપાવવાનું કર્યું. હજુ ખુટતા 15,000માંથી 10,000ની લોન લેવા સંસ્થામાં 50 પરિવારોએ અરજી કરી. ‘5000 ભેગા થઈ જાશે. પણ 10ની તમે લોન આપો.’

લોનના હપ્તા સગવડ પ્રમાણે ભરતા જઈશું પણ આ ચોમાસું હવે છાપરાંમાં નથી કાઢવું. તેવી તેમની લાગણી.

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The Homeless Nomadic Tribes sharing
 their feelings after visiting their own 'Pucca house'  

નગરપાલિકા ડીસા, પ્રવિણભાઈ માળી અને વી.એસ.એસ.એમ. જેમના થકી આ કામ કરી શકે છે તેવા આપ સૌ પ્રિય સ્વજનો, આ પરિવારો માટે દિવસ રાત દોડતો અમારો કાર્યકર મહેશ. આમ તો આ બધાના કારણે જ આ પરિવારોની આંખમાં સોનેરી સ્વપ્ન આંજવાનું શક્ય બન્યું, જો કે સૌથી વધુ અગત્યનું જેમના થકી આ કામ કરવાનું થઈ શક્યું તેવા વિચરતી – વિમુક્ત જાતિના પરિવારજનો,સૌનો આભાર..

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