Sudha, 30, got married as a teenager before she could finish high school and quickly found herself a young homemaker with one daughter and few job skills.  Her family struggled with making ends meet and kept falling into debt. After Sudha joined Greenkraft as a basket weaver, a producer-owned company supported by the USAID India “Producer Owned Women Enterprises” (POWER) project, she started earning a regular income with a benefits package including health insurance and social security. Speaking about her experience at Greenkraft over the past year, Sudha says, “Today, I have a voice at home, my husband and in-laws are proud of me and look up to me because I continue to contribute to my family. I can now educate my daughter and let her do all that I couldn’t as a child.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Sudha and her family struggled with financial anxiety due to the uncertainty of the situation and seeing friends and neighbors lose their jobs. Greenkraft stepped in, however, and allowed Sudha and the company’s other women employees work from home by sewing locally sold face masks that maintained their livelihood and protected the health of their communities, “While most of the people lost their jobs in my village due to this pandemic, Greenkraft continued to flourish, supporting us with crucial income that was needed for our survival and allowing me to work from home,” said Sudha.