Nine WAWCAS groups merged and developed the Margadasan Multipurpose Cooperative
By; Krishna Maharjan, Finance Officer – WAWCAS Program
Most of the nine WAWCAS groups in Dhamelikuwa has merged and developed the Margadarsan Multipurpose Cooperative. This is a big step.
The last groups in Dhamilikuwa completed the WAWCAS program in 2015 still have regular savings and loans within their groups of 25 women every month.
Mira Mishra, Sharada Chiluwal and their group gathered most of the WAWCAS women for the idea of establishing a merged cooperative, and they established Margadarsan Multipurpose Cooperative. Mira and her team successfully merged the nine WAWCAS groups in 2016, and one of the women has fully devoted her time to develop the cooperative.
This has never happened in other areas of WAWCAS.
The cooperative was running and growing fast with a lot of savings from the 293 members. The cooperative was growing, but also with lots of challenges. The board members of the cooperative were fully involved in collecting savings and lending money to the members, having meetings and doing social works.
These groups in the cooperative are all exited groups from the WAWCAS program several years ago, but when we in WAWCAS came to know about this big thing taking place in Dhamilikuwa, it was decided, that I, as the Finance Office, should pay a visit to the cooperative just to check that they managed fine.
I realized that there was a lack of knowledge on record keeping, minutes, loan deeds, loan documentation,and how to hold a meeting, and they had no office and staff. Income, expenses, liability and asset books had not been properly recorded.
We decided to give training to this cooperative to support the big initiative, these women had taken. Last year we visited the Margadarsan Cooperative to train and develop the cooperative and the board members for further development. BUT there was no growth within a three months period. All documentation was found at the same stage as the previous period due to the women not being educated. Therefore, they were not able to maintain paper work. Then we planned to hire staff and rent an office room for the cooperative paid by the women. After one week the office was established, and the staff was hired to work. Then we provided training to all the staff in documentation, record keeping, proper management of assets and liabilities to the staff. After another week the development of the cooperative was on track. We also developed an action plan together.
Action plan, my regular visits and follow ups through phone calls have helped to change the cooperative drastically. They have now regular board meetings, regular account committee meetings and loan committee meetings. All documentation is strong, proper monitored and evaluated, and financial transactions are transparent. In this cooperative 293 women are actively participating. The cooperative has just completed their 2nd AGM for fiscal year 2073/74, (2016/17) and the main achievements were:
- More than Rs 400,000/- share capital
- Rs 1900,000/- loan flow
- Get profit of Rs 100,000/-
- Saving amount Rs 850,000/-
- Loan default was below 2 percent
- Developed a saving protocol
- Developed a loan protocol
- Microinsurance for cooperative
- Expanding the working area
Mira and her team have a great vision of the cooperative. During the next five years the goal is to have a capital of Rs. 1,200,000/-, savings will be 10,000,000/-, loan flow will be 12,500,000/- and that the number of women will be 1,500. Margadarsan Multipurpose Cooperative wants to be the best woman cooperative in the Lamjung district. All financial transactions will be software based and bank transactions.
I am so proud to be the trainer of the cooperative and wish them good luck.