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Organization	Shivia
Region	India
Website	Website
Facebook	Facebook
Twitter	@Twitter
ProjectLeader	Olly Donnelly

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Shivia helps very poor families in West Bengal work their way out of poverty through farming. We offer our beneficiaries the chance to turn small plots of land into fertile areas where they can grow valuable crops. We train our farmers to adopt new farming techniques and organise them into groups so that they can benefit from reduced costs for seeds and fertilisers and have better access to the marketplace. We aim to work with over 1,000 farmers helping them gain a much needed income.

Challenge

In India, 70% of the population, about 840 million people, live on less than USD $2 per day. Shivia works in West Bengal, one of the poorest states, where most people struggle to earn enough for even the most basic human needs. Hand-outs to alleviate poverty are unsuccessful in the long term - what people really want is a regular job and a secure income to provide for their family. Most of all, parents want to give their children nutritious food and access to a good education.

Long-Term Impact

Once our farmers are trained and well established, we organise them into farmer interest groups, allowing them to gain from reduced input costs (seeds/fertilisers, etc) and access to wider markets. As a group they may also be eligible for bank loans, enabling them to grow their business even further. We also link the groups to government agricultural schemes. Our farmers can quickly become self-sufficient and financially independent with spending choices never previously available to them.