Joyasree (Ranu) Mahanti, Founder
It all began in 2006 while listening the story from a young woman who was paying 50 rupees (monthly) for a loan of 500 rupees that she took from a money lender for her son’s medicine. To close the loan, she had to pay the entire principal of 500 rupees at one time, which was not possible for her family of five with a total income of 2000 rupees per month. During her work in India, Joyasree had witnessed many such heartbreaking moments. This was the motivation for her to launch Aamara Biswas (Our Trust) in 2007 to implement the Funding with Trust system in urban areas and villages of the state of Odisha in India. In the same year, she started Our Biswas (Our Belief In the Services for Women of All Societies), the US-based nonprofit organization to support the Funding with Trust program in India and other parts of the world.
