A growing number of Women Self-Help Groups (WSHGs) from Ponda constituency have been recording growing sales for their products, thanks to a novel ‘Give Goa Project’ initiated by the Goa Institute of Management (GIM) at Sanquelim.
As part of the project, five SHGs have been undergoing training in business management and six first-year students of GIM have been working with the SHGs since July. Encouraged by this success, two more SHGs have joined the programme to gain valuable tips on business management.
According to the GIM students involved in the project, the SHGs are being trained in areas of product marketing, finance and cost, and bookkeeping.
As part of the project, the group members, Aakansha Gupta, Ankit Agarwal, Rajesh T V, Rohan Naik, Saurabh Jain and Sukant Shenoy, have been visiting the SHGs in Ponda every Thursday and this interaction will continue till February 2014.
“Products manufactured by the SHGs, such as seashell artifact, garam masala and eatables had a limited market as they were being sold only to friends and people in the locality. We helped them with marketing ideas and now, they have been getting orders from outside Ponda,” said Rohan Naik, a GIM student.
“These groups are not into full-time business and as such, they had very limited knowledge in marketing, finances and in maintaining records. After learning their business model, we helped them in these areas using simple techniques and without much additional expenditure,” informed Naik.
The initiative of the GIM has significantly helped the seven SHGs, with the Tulasi Mahila Mandal at Silvanagar-Ponda recording a considerable rise in sales for their seashell items.
“The GIM ‘Give Goa Project’ has benefited us and we now have a market for our products outside Ponda. The motivation and guidance from these students has worked wonders for us,” said a grateful Trupti Naik, treasurer of Tulsi Mahila Mandal.
According to Rohan Naik, Ponda MLA Lavoo Mamledar has assured to help the SHGs to market their products through the Goa Handicrafts Rural and Small Scale Industries Development Corporation (GHRSSIDC), which, incidentally, is headed by Mamledar.
