Trickle Up

“We once believed that saving money was only possible for wealthy families, but now even small savings give us confidence and hope for the future.”

Today, Dharmi and her husband, Vaida, are better equipped to manage household expenses and navigate unexpected challenges without relying heavily on money lenders.

Through the Ultra Poor Graduation Program for PVTG communities in Jharkhand, supported by Whole Foods Market Foundation, they have strengthened their financial resilience and gained greater confidence in planning for the future.

Read their full story: https://buff.ly/0vAZxWs

Turning Today’s Savings into Tomorrow’s Opportunities - Trickle Up Dharmi Pahadin once believed that saving money was beyond the reach of families living on limited and unpredictable incomes—but not anymore.

For Sugiya Devi, the journey from crisis to confidence has been gradual but deeply transformative, built through a growing belief that a more secure future is within reach.

Sugiya saves regularly at home, with her savings group, and in her bank account, creating a stronger sense of financial security for her family.

As she continues to strengthen her livelihood, Sugiya is already looking ahead. In our quote card, she shares her hopes and plans for the future.

Her full story: https://buff.ly/LqDuHfE

Financial knowledge is about more than managing day-to-day expenses. It is a foundation for making informed decisions, building resilience, and building sustainable livelihoods.

Through the CRECE project, Trickle Up is providing workshops that help women strengthen both household and micro-enterprise financial management skills.

Each module builds on key financial concepts, equipping women with the knowledge and confidence to make decisions that contribute to long-term stability and economic opportunity.

A stronger understanding of finance gives women greater power to invest in their families, grow their businesses, and shape their own futures.

As her confidence grew, our participant, Sugiya Devi, developed a structured livelihood plan utilizing her land and livestock resources.

With training, exposure visits, and continuous support, Sugiya adopted goat rearing and backyard poultry while also beginning seasonal vegetable cultivation. She introduced multilayer farming techniques to make better use of her limited land and slowly began diversifying her income sources.

Sugiya’s journey from crisis to confidence has been gradual but deeply transformative.

Read her full story:

From Daily Wage Labor to New Dreams: Sugiya’s Story of Change - Trickle Up Sugiya Devi’s stability was shattered when her husband passed away suddenly, leaving her alone to care for four young children, the youngest only two years old.

At the recent Annual Convening, our Regional Director, Natalia Wills, participated in the workshop, "Financial Innovation and Gender: Designing Solutions to Improve Women’s Access to Credit."

Through rich discussions around real-world challenges, participants explored how financial institutions can better serve women through intentional product design and innovation.

Natalia shared three key takeaways:

🔹 Leadership commitment is essential. Successful gender-intentional financial products require strong buy-in from senior management, institutional leadership, and boards to ensure that gender considerations are embedded in strategy, investment decisions, and organizational culture.

🔹 Design from women’s lived experiences. Effective products are built through women-centered design approaches that start with understanding women's needs, preferences, constraints, and aspirations. This also requires recognizing that women are not a homogeneous group and incorporating an intersectional lens that considers factors such as age, ethnicity, disability, geography, migration status, and income level.

🔹 Adopt an innovation and learning mindset. Product development should be an iterative process of testing, learning, adapting, and refining solutions based on user feedback and real-world experience rather than relying on assumptions.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this important conversation on advancing women’s financial inclusion and expanding access to credit.

The importance of understanding women’s digital behaviors is not a new topic.

However, most of these discussions don’t prioritize her agency: how she uses digital solutions, why she uses them, her control and autonomy in using these solutions, and what contextual considerations need to be made to inform solution design.

We believe insights gained from understanding and prioritizing women’s digital agency can have an impact in longer term uptake and usage of digital solutions that support her resilience.

Join Trickle Up and Quicksand at our upcoming webinar as we share findings from the most recent research Quicksand has undertaken to better understand what informs women’s digital agency:

👉️ https://buff.ly/KyW9gDy

Through Trickle Up’s UPRP initiative, Mahendra and Jaleswari began receiving structured support to rebuild their lives. A critical first step was helping them obtain essential documentation and connect to government housing schemes and other social services.

Despite living with visual impairments, both siblings remained committed to earning a livelihood. Mahendra herded cattle for income, while Jaleswari worked as a farm laborer. Reflecting on their daily lives, Mahendra shared:

“Even without sight, my sister and I do what we can, working hard each day to live with dignity and independence.”

Their determination and commitment to self-reliance inspired a tailored livelihood plan centered on backyard poultry, creating a new pathway toward greater financial security and independence.

Read their full story: buff.ly/FnRhuWw

We’re excited to welcome Taddeo Muriuki as Trickle Up’s new Vice President, Africa. 🎉

Taddeo is an experienced African development leader with deep expertise in economic inclusion, technical assistance, and government engagement. He joins Trickle Up from Village Enterprise, where he led senior initiatives supporting governments and regional partners to adapt and scale livelihoods approaches through public systems.

As Vice President, Africa, Taddeo will drive Trickle Up’s regional strategy and scale women-centered economic inclusion across the continent. He is dedicated to positioning local organizations as essential partners in this next chapter—uniting their deep community insights with Trickle Up’s technical expertise and the reach of public systems to build sustainable pathways out of extreme poverty.

We are thrilled to have Taddeo join our team as we begin an exciting new chapter in Africa. Together, we look forward to expanding our work, deepening local partnerships, and reaching more women with the tools, opportunities, and support. 🌍

Please join us in welcoming Taddeo to Trickle Up! 👏

Shakuntala struggled to secure daily meals for her family, surviving by collecting and selling firewood. During one monsoon season, the mud house she shared with her children collapsed in the middle of the night.

Step by step, she began rebuilding her livelihood. Today, she earns an income through vegetable cultivation and backyard poultry farming. 🌱

Read her full story and learn how Trickle Up’s UPRP initiative became a turning point: https://buff.ly/un7Pm7C

Trickle Up India Foundation