My name is Shankar Budha. I am the chairperson of Haatemalo Community Development, Agriculture and Herbs Cooperative, Rowa-7, Mugu. GNI Nepal facilitated to set-up this cooperative. At the time of its formation, there were 50 share-holders only. It was very much challenging for us to convince the people to join the cooperative. We conducted a number of community meetings to share the benefits it would bring in their lives, but they would not listen to us. However, we continued our activities. Through our cooperative, we started herb collection as well. The herbs were sold at a good price. As a result, we were able to save some amount for our cooperative as well.

GNI also supported us to start a retail-shop. It purchases hosiery from the community and sells them. The demand of hosiery is increasing day by day. The benefit of becoming a member was clearly visible to all in the community. As a result, now, we have 95 share-holders. Currently, we have $ 7,747 in savings and it is increasing every day. Nine individuals have got full-time job in this cooperative and more than 200 community members have been partially involved in the collection of herbs. We are very happy that this cooperative has been providing economic support to the people and it brought positive changes in our livelihoods.