From unfavourable situations to all round economic development...

I am Suresh Lal, my daughter Jyoti is a CFCA sponsored child & currently studying in senior secondary in St. Michael School, Gokhla. We were not well economically before joining the CFCA sponsorship program. I desired to provide quality education to my daughter but due to unfavorable situations, I was not able to do so although Jyoti had keen interest in studies. We enrolled Jyoti in a good boarding school after she got CFCA sponsorship on 8 July 2013 and after that we could see improvements in her academics. I have three more children other than Jyoti. I am an ordinary farmer and somehow I managed to provide for their education. Jyoti's mother Sohagini started attending sponsored communities 'meetings and trainings and learnt about ways of self employment. She shared everything with me that she learnt from her fellow women and in livelihood training programs conducted by CFCA and we both decided to start vegetable farming & selling.

We started growing vegetables like potato and others in 16 katha land (11,520 sq. ft.).From the money that we earned from it we bought more land and started growing ivy gourd being inspired seeing others. In the beginning we did not have much profit but we continued growing ivy gourd and other green vegetables for 2-4 years and now we are earning more than our expectations. We sell vegetables once or twice in a week to vegetable vendors. Every week we get harvest around 7-8 full sacks. The income is enough to fulfill our basic needs and educational needs of all children. We earned so much that we have constructed a small pucca house of cement and concrete. Earlier we had a small mud house. Our family grew financially with the help of CFCA. All our children are getting good education and we are living in a pucca house. The entire credit of our economic improvement goes to CFCA sponsorship program. I express my heartfelt gratitude towards the organization.