MOAZUNGLA : profiling Inspirational SHG Members/Leaders

 

1. PERSONAL PROFILE:

1	Name	MOAZUNGLA
2	Date of Birth	15 – 03 – 1976
3	Educational Qualification	PU
4	Name of Husband	KILANGWATI
5	Total Family members	5 (3 daughters, 1 son and husband)
6	Social background	ST
7	Name of village	UNGER
8	Name of Block	Changtongya Block
9	Name of District	Mokokchung
10	Major source of livelihood of the family	– General shop being run by her. – Rearing of pigs and poultry.
11	Occupation of husband	Works as a Counsellor at Grace Home Rehabilitation Centre, Tuli. Mokokchung. Nagaland.
12	Occupation of children	All four children are currently pursuing their school education.

 

2. SHG Details:

1	Name of SHG	LONGTSUKTEP SHG
2	Date of joining SHG	09 – 11 – 2013
3	Leadership position (currently or previously held in the SHG/VLO/BLF)	– Currently she is the Treasurer of Longtsuktep  SHG -Previously, she was the President of Longtsuktep SHG
4	Details of training received	-. Induction training at OMPLIS, AP. – SHG Book keeping training. – MCP training at Resource block – Thematic training at Resource Block. – Gender training at Resource Block. – Federation training at Resource Block. – Concept setting of VLO at Resource block.
5	Exposure visit undertaken within the district and outside the district/State	– Within the State, she participated during VDB Conference in 2017. – Outside of State, she visited Golaghat District, Assam, as part of ATMA exposure trip on piggery management.
6	Services rendered as Resource person	– Triggering of NRLM field implementation in new village/blocks. – Identify poor Households (HHs) and vulnerable members of the community. – Identify existing and defunct SHGs and bring them under NRLM fold. – Mobilize targeted HHs for formation of new SHGs and conduct trainings of SHGs on Panchasutra.
7	Honorarium received	Honorarium of Rs. 1000/- per day during CRP rounds  and CRP round follow ups conducted at Changtongya Block,  Tuli Block, Kobulong Block and Chuchuyimlang Block.
8	Other engagements (if any)	– She is currently working as a Sunday School Teacher in her Church.. -Also Secretary in WATSU Unit, Unger village.

 

3. Personal and Family Life before joining SHG.

Mrs. MOAZUNGLA is the 12^th sibling among 14 children (6 sons, 8 daughters) of Mrs. & Mr. MERSHIBA, who were but farmers. Born and brought up in her native village – UNGER under Mokokchung district, Nagaland. With more than a dozen of children, her parents faced untold life’s challenges and struggles to meet their daily basic needs: education, health and the like. In-spite of all the struggles and challenges, she studied in her village Government Primary School till her primary education under the tender care and protection of her loving poor parents. But after that, she was compelled to move away from her parents and village and was made to stay periodically with her elder siblings in pursuits of her higher education, as she had to depend on them to support her. As a result, she had to move from one place to another until she completed her Pre-University (PU- Arts) course.

After her study, at the age of 24, she got married to Mr. Kilangwatiwho’s life was chemically dependent till 2005.

 

4. Life after marriagebut before joining SHG:

Life’s bitter struggles and challenges seems never ending for Mrs. MOAZUNGLA, because, the after married life heralds untold hardships as she had to support her husband as well as her three little children. Being the sole bread earner of her family, at times she had to sacrifice her basic needs so as to provide for her family. She had but no other option to work constantly as daily wage earner and did other odd jobs and menial works. But on the other hand, her husband’s chemical dependency put her family in huge debts. In-spite of all such hard circumstances in life, it did not deter her in her strive to raise a stable family. In fact, such circumstances made her a stronger woman. At the end of 2005, her husband successfully underwent rehabilitation for his chemical dependency and took a new u-turn for his life and more importantly for his family. After his successful rehabilitation, for the first time as a husband, he started to work as a residential Counsellor at Grace Home Rehabilitation Centre at Tuli Town, Mokokchung district and started with a meagre earnings of Rs. 3000/- as monthly salary. While this brought about a sense of stability to her life, she still had to carry the burden of repaying the debts incurred by her husband. Life was still not a bed of roses for her. What made her to push along life’s path was, her sheer determination not to give up hope for a new bright day, and also the ample moral, financial and prayer support that comes her way through her in-laws and family members (her mother, siblings and friends).

In retrospection, she is regretful that she could not sent her children to good schools for better and quality education. Moreover, her dream of owning a house with all basic amenities was shattered along in her early struggles of life as a wife and as a mother.

 

5. Journey as an SHG member:

As she strive along life’s path, true to the sayings “fortune favours the brave”, a new bright ray started to dawn upon her. In 2013, during the mobilization drive by NSRLM staffs Changtongya Block, she was motivated to join the SHG movement and she herself initiated a SHG by further motivating her neighbours and friends and named it LONGTSUKTEP SHG. Considering and evaluating her life’s journey and active participation and dedication towards the SHG movement, her villagers nominated her to be one of the Women Activist (now called as Internal Community Resource Person) under Changtongya Block.

 

As her life evolves for better, she started to avail loans from her SHG on a lower interest rate. This enables her to undertake various IGAs and brings more stability to her family. Till date she has availed 8 loans from her SHG amounting to Rs, 1,10,000/-; a KCC loan and a personal loan both from Central Bank of India, Mokokchung Branch. Through such financial interventions, she undertook various IGAs ranging from petty business to rearing poultry in her backyard. The earnings from all her varied activities enables her to pay off all the debts incurred by her husband; sends her children to private schools for quality education; and brought basic home amenities such as gas stove, induction cooker, mattress, fan, kitchen needs, television and the likes.

 

Presently she has up-grated her petty shop business to a general shop where she tries her level best to ensure that villagers get all basic goods at the rate of Towns, which saves the community their time, energy and money to go to other Towns to purchase their needs. And alongside her shop business, she has started to rear pigs in large numbers with assistance from NABARD, Mokokchung and NStCB Ltd, Changtongya Branch.

To express her life in a nutshell she can be defined as an Initiator, Motivator and a Fighter. Her life’s book is always a delight and inspiration for every reader.

 

6. Dreams fulfilled and unfulfilled aspirations:

With all the transitions in her life, today she is pleased to have fulfilled her dreams of sending her children to good schools. She has also constructed a small portion of her house which her family utilized it as their kitchen. And much to her satisfaction, her aspiration to open a general shop was realized whereby she also gets some income and also gives services to the villagers for buying their needs in their village itself. She further aspires to uplift her social status and works towards a stable livelihood. She is truly inspired by the ideals of the working systems of SHG movement of helping each other. She foresees a future where her family will be sufficiently provided with. She also visualizes a bright future where all the Naga women will have a dignified and decent livelihood and life a dignified lives.

 

 

7. Analysis of the contributing factors:

She owes all her economic advancement to all the credit facilities both from her SHG and the Banking fraternities and her social empowerment to all the leadership roles entrusted in good faith to her by the community. She is indeed a source of immense inspiration to her villagers and also to the women of other villages under Mokokchung district. In her words, “hard work, sheer determination and perseverance to life’s challenges and struggles is key to success in life”.

She called upon all women to join this SHG movement which certainly will up-lift one’s social standings, ensures empowerment and most importantly guarantees dignified livelihood for everyone.