Three Heroic Women Part 3

Not only does she hold a complex business together dealing with searching out quality materials, managing highly skilled weavers, anticipating fluctuating markets and taste, and import/export issues but she also meets the most difficult challenge which is running a business in a country that is consumed by war. On top of this staggering schedule, Meghna takes her “free” time to coordinate hospital visits, secure hotel rooms for the parents of cleft children, interview students wishing to enter a technical program or college and keeps complicated financial records that would impress any CPA. The most telling thing about Meghna is that she takes her precious time to greet the young patients in the hospital with ice cream.

To most of the children Meghna, Lela and Nirmala offer them their first taste of a better life! These two programs are small and affect people whose lives we will never hear about. But these three women are truly unsung heroes.

I hatched the premise for Mahila, a small Connecticut-based jewelry company, on the floor of the Peace Corps center in Katmandu, Nepal. I had no business background, no previous entrepreneurial ambition or skills. I had fallen in love with the people, the jewelry and the many children wanting to change their lives through education or a cleft palate surgery. A social worker by background, I came home and took crash business courses but largely learned by the seat of my pants. I started Mahila as a home party business. I knew that we needed a web site but was reluctant because I was afraid that it wouldn't be able to tell customers what we did "with heart". I was wrong; it really tells our story. www.mahilajewelry.com