Daw Khin Nilar Htun makes plastic rope in Bago, Myanmar. She used to work in a factory that made this rope and she remodeled this machine after that one. In the factory they made only two strings of ropes but this machine that she created herself makes four strings of rope at a time. She created the design and her husband and cousin welded it together. She makes about 70 bunches a day, each bunch has ten ropes, her husband helps by selling the rope in the market and they make $2-5 a day. He...
more »

Daw Khin Nilar Htun makes plastic rope in Bago, Myanmar. She used to work in a factory that made this rope and she remodeled this machine after that one. In the factory they made only two strings of ropes but this machine that she created herself makes four strings of rope at a time. She created the design and her husband and cousin welded it together. She makes about 70 bunches a day, each bunch has ten ropes, her husband helps by selling the rope in the market and they make $2-5 a day. He also sells clay pots that he gets from other people. She work about 7.5 hours a day but has to hire some help as she also cooks, cleans and takes care of the children. They have five children ages 4-24. She received a BRAC loan of $500 and was able to open a small restaurant as well and now together with the restaurant, selling the rope and pots they make about $55 a day. They had a storage place but they lost everything in a fire, with no insurance. She bought materials for the rope with the initial BRAC loan but wants to get another loan to get a new machine and try and replace the stock that was lost. The father would like to bring up the standard of the family. One of their daughters is an engineer and another is a nurse.
« less