Like thousands of girls across India, Lakshmi Sole dropped out of school very early because her family didn’t have the resources to support her education. Her father was the sole breadwinner of their five-member family in Khamgaon, Maharashtra, working as a daily wage labourer. As her family’s financial struggles continued over time, Lakshmi became even more determined to support them.
She started by opting for training at the Prabhat Livelihood Centre, where she signed up for the General Duty Assistant course. During her on-the-job training at a local hospital, she took an interest in nursing, quickly learning new information, and picking up useful skills.
After her training, Lakshmi joined a hospital as a nursing assistant. In addition to her income, Lakshmi earned the respect of her community. She encouraged girls like her to persevere and pursue their dreams, despite their difficult circumstances.
Today, Lakshmi is an assistant paramedic who loves her job, and is proud that she can support her family. Her dream is to continue in the medical field and she hopes to become Head Nurse someday.
About Project Prabhat:
Project Prabhat, the *USLP-linked community development initiative of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), aims to build sustainable and inclusive communities around HUL sites. In the last five years, through focussed efforts on enhancing livelihood, water conservation and health & well-being, it has touched 2.95 million lives across 30+ locations and has over 5000 HUL employee volunteers involved in it.
*About the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP):
The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) is our blueprint for achieving our vision to grow our business, whilst decoupling our environmental footprint from our growth and increasing our positive social impact. The Plan sets stretching targets, including how we source raw materials and how consumers use our brands. The Plan has three big goals:
- Improving health & well-being for more than 1 billion
- Reducing environmental impact by ½
- Enhancing Livelihoods for millions
Read about the USLP