Ragini’s son is an under-graduation student in Mysore. His friends ask him, ‘who taught you to write down your daily expenses?’. He proudly answers, ‘My mother!’, surprising them that she has been educated only till 10th grade.
When Ragini came for the Buzz Self Shakti training in 2018, she felt a surge of knowledge fill her. Since then, she has written her accounts every single day and taught this skill to her sons too. Since then, she has attended every single Buzz training – from Spoorthi to Green to Vyapar. And since then, Ragini has transformed herself into a force for good in her village.
Earlier, Ragini kept herself busy with her household chores and didn’t involve much with community activities. “I didn’t know how to use my skills. But the training opened my mind to new ideas and I found a new courage within me”, says Ragini. Her change started with saving money. It’s a small step, but it was the beginning of a big transformation in Ragini’s life.
“I do have loans to repay after my husband’s heart surgery. But I don’t feel anxious about it. I have a feeling of security that we can manage everything because we have been using money wisely. We deposit in Recurring Deposits in the names of both my sons, there’s gold, I don’t spend money unnecessarily, there’s money kept aside for emergencies, and there is money being saved. This brings a lot of peace”, says Ragini.
The best part is that Ragini genuinely believes in sharing this knowledge with other women. Ragini is a Buzz Anchor Woman (Buzz Gelathi) who voluntarily supports the transformation journey of her peers in the village. She organises the Buzz Beehive Meetings (Jenugoodu) every month. The women get together, discuss their problems and goals, and find support from each other.
She took another big step to spread the knowledge by undergoing the Buzz ‘Self-Shakti by Gelathi’ training programme. This programme is aimed at empowering the Buzz Anchor Women to become trainers. Women who have undergone the Self-Shakti training and have achieved change in their lives are encouraged to become trainers for other women in the village whom we have not been able to reach. Ragini mobilized 30 women from her village and organized an enthusiastic training session for them. “I didn’t have any fear standing in front of them and speaking. I felt it was my responsibility to share what I learned”, says Ragini.
Ragini has also been actively sharing her experience with the women of the Self-Help Group (SHG) that she is a member of. Whenever she learns something new, she shares it with them. Ragini started saving money after the Buzz training and came up with an idea to buy gold. In the last 17 months, all the 17 members of the SHG have saved money and bought 17 grams of gold each!
After attending the Buzz Green training programme, Ragini planted trees in her front yard. They are now growing lush and green, bringing cool breeze to her house. But could Ragini stop there? She inspired the women of her SHG to come together and plant saplings in the local school. They approached the school and offered to not just plant trees, but to maintain them too. The school was more than happy with this offer. The women planted big trees, like mango trees, that will last to provide shades for generations to come. Also, the women take turns to visit the school and ensure that the trees are growing healthy.
One day she gave us a heartwarming surprise! Ragini and her friends from the SHG group set aside a minimum of one rupee every day and donated Rs 8000 to Buzz! They wanted to pay-it-forward to us so that Buzz can empower more women to transform their lives. Aren’t we right in our belief that change travels from one woman to the other?
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