With an unemployed husband, Bendangenla Weo’s biggest distress was providing quality education for her four children. Hailing from Virazouma village, she joined an NSRLM SHG in 2014 and has been one of the most active SHG members under Chümoukedima block.

This International Women’s Day 2024 celebrated on March 8 at The Heritage, Kohima, Weo was recognised with the Farm Livelihood Lakhpatti Didi Award by the Nagaland State Rural Livelihoods Mission (NSRLM).

Her status improved under the constant handholding and capacity building support of the Mission which has also led to a positive impact on her family. In 2017, her husband availed a loan of Rs. 70,000/- from SVEP to start his carpentry workshop. Weo was also selected as SVEP’s CRP in 2019 where she had the opportunity to undergo various trainings. In 2020, she received an online training from ICAR on mushroom cultivation after which she directly approached Dr. Sosang, the resource person for further research and finally, along with her neighbor, started a small mushroom farm.

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Fortunately, her group was selected for NEC funded Oyster mushroom project in 2021. During the peak season, Weo was able to make a total profit of around Rs. 24,000/- in a month. She then procured a sugarcane extractor machine which was modified into paddy straw cutter by her husband, for cutting straw during Mushroom cultivation.

After availing a loan of Rs. 1,00,000 from SVEP on June 2022, Weo opened a hostel near St. Joseph School, Chümoukedima. Presently, she receives a monthly profit of Rs. 27,850/- and plans to further expand the hostel in the coming year. Despite carrying out different activities, Weo has decided to focus more on food processing and preservation and hopes to set up a small unit for making organic fruit juice with locally available and organically grown fruits.

Bendangenla credits NSRLM for elevating her family livelihoods and also hopes more women will become empowered.