Abdul Azeez Jabarullah started to breed cattle ten years ago. “I started with two head of cattle that I bought for ninety thousand rupees” he says, adding that his herd is valued at nearly a million rupees now. He was always fond of cows. So much so, that as a child he would innocently bring other people’s cattle home. Today he has evolved from that kind of mischievousness, though his impish features and ready smile still betray a playful soul within the shrewd businessman he has now become.
His entire family gets involved in the business, his wife, his daughters and even his little son. “There is always someone to look after the cattle” he says, adding that because of this, he has been able to attend the INSPIRED program without any loss to his work commitments. When he fell sick on one occasion, his wife attended the program on his behalf “just so that we wouldn’t miss anything”.
The program has proven to be hugely beneficial to Jabarullah. He proudly shows us his accounts book, “before I learned to account we never kept a record of our transactions” adding that this has really helped him plan out his business. The program gave him the idea to make fertilizer out of cow dung, now a successful source of supplementary income. Contacts he made through the program also led him to find a buyer for his bulls: an operator in Sigiriya who uses them to pull bullock carts laden with tourists and VIPs.
A tireless social worker, Jabarullah, along with his neighbor Priyadarshini, is a key reason for the enthusiasm that participants in the Trinco district have for the program. “I would go around and make sure everyone knew about the next workshop and that they would attend” he says, emphasizing that he is convinced that collective participation in INSPIRED could only bring benefits to his community.