Whenever Habila would need to attend a training workshop for the INSPIRED project “I would drop everything and go” she remembers. Along with her neighbors Jabarulla and Priyadarshini, who motivated her to attend, Habila also found a supportive community of peers within the program. “For the first time in my life I had a chance to develop strong bonds with people from communities I had not previously interacted with much” she says, adding that she would love for the program to continue simply so that she could experience that sense of camaraderie again.
Their son started the chicken shop which his parents, Habila and her husband Ali, eventually took over. It was in a tiny corrugated steel shed loosely erected in a small space in front of their house. Since obtaining the seed grant from INSPIRED, the family has been able to build a complete brick and mortar structure, something they feel very accomplished about. “It feels like we have come a long way,” Habila says tearfully, adding that she was also very grateful to her cousin who allowed them to use his boundary wall for part of the structure, “we really wouldn’t have gotten here without all the people who helped us”.
Her entire family cooperates to ensure the business thrives. Habila, being unable to read or write, relies on her son and daughter-in-law to help her with the accounts, while her husband is always ready to take over shifts in the shop so that she can take a break. With greater success has come greater bargaining power; “I no longer have to go out to buy stocks” says Habila. The vendors come to her now instead. The store has expanded into a little grocery shop that services the neighborhood with miscellaneous products. Her son slaughters chicken in the backyard which they still sell and which they are known for. “Our product is fresh and clean, and so everyone in the area comes to us to buy chicken,” says Ali.