JCF was My Rescuer

Kona Begum couldn’t control her emotions at the time of sharing her struggles when she was badly searching for financial assistance to start her own business. It was the year 2007; one day she came to know about JCF’s Microfinance Program and communicated with the staff. They visited her small bakery and gave her first loan in 2008. She recalled that she and her husband had to go through some hard time starting the enterprise in small scale and that was not enough for its sustainability. So her husband took high interest loan from local persons and in spite of getting advantages the high interest loan became a burden for them. It was very hard for them to even manage the family expenses. Her factory is situated in Faridpur town and she is now supplying different snacks and cookies to different places around Faridpur including Faridpur General Hospital and Medical College Hospital. The daily production capacity of her factory is 350 kgs. She said that though the trade license is in the name of her husband but most of the time she looks after the factory and her husband is engaged at marketing side and delivering the products in and outside of Faridpur. There are 28 permanent workers working in her factory now but at the starting only 3 workers were employed in her factory. Her present business capital is worth of BDT 3,000,000 and average annual income is BDT 1,250,000. She has taken loan of BDT 1,435,000 so far from JCF, her first loan amount was BDT 20,000 and last loan ceiling is BDT 200,000. She has bought 03 decimals of land in the Faridpur town is building her building on the land. Her eldest daughter has passed her graduation, son is studying in under graduate level and youngest daughter in 12^th grade.