Through all my struggles, I believed in myself. That is how I was able to build a life that makes me and my family proud.

“How you face life’s struggles, determines how far you will go in life.”

I struggled through life ever since I was a child but I never backed down. My father could not support my education, so I managed with scholarships and borrowed uniforms and school supplies. In spite of all my efforts, I was not able to complete my education as I was married at the age of 16.My husband’s family was financially better off but my life did not get any easier. My mother-in-law and I had an uneasy relationship but my father-in-law was kind to me. After the birth of my second child, I decided that it was time to take charge of my life and started working. We left my in-laws’ house and moved into a small rented house. Just then, as luck would have it, my husband fell very ill. My income was inadequate to run the household. However, I had to overcome this challenge all by myself. I was determined not to let my family down.

It was by chance that a friend told me about the free programmes run by the ICICI RuraI Self-Employment Training Institute (ICICI RSETI). For me, it seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime. I enrolled for the Beauty Parlour Management course. The course equipped me not only with technical and practical knowledge but also with the confidence to put my knowledge to use. The support of the ICICI RSETI continued even after I had completed the course. I wanted to open my own parlour but did not have enough money to do so. With the help and advice of the Director at the Training Institute, I managed to get a loan from ICICI Bank. This enabled me to fulfil my dream. Today, I run my own parlour with 2 employees.

“When you succeed, you must also help and inspire others to do so.”

Through all my struggles, I believed in myself. That is how I was able to build a life that makes me and my family proud.Thanks to the support of ICICI and my husband, I am an entrepreneur today. I have built my own house and I support my family. I have built a savings corpus that I want to plough back into growing my little business. I dream of giving my children a decent education so that they can have access to opportunities that I did not have.

I want my success story to inspire other women so that they do not have to face the same hardships in life. We are very grateful to the ICICI Training Institute for helping me in achieving my dreams and believe that the only way to show my gratitude to them is by being kind to others like they were kind to me.