Client Stories

The serenity in this photograph belies reality; it does not capture the dust and extreme heat, with flies buzzing around incessantly. The only relief comes from a clunky and ancient cooler whirring away in the background. Meanwhile, Mehrbhari Baji and her family carry on with their work unbothered. The weather in their hometown of Khairpur, in Thatta, Badin, has always been this way, and she has no reason to question or expect the frosted air-conditioned air that city dwellers are used to. When questioned if the heat ever gets to her, she candidly answers in Sindhi, “Only a donkey would expect Northern winds in Interior Sindh.”

Mehrbhari has been a Kashf client for the past ten years. When she first came to us, she was a bereft twenty two years old, newly widowed, without a single penny to her name. Her husband had been an employee of Pakistan Railways, with a meagre income, but a happy home life. His death was a fatal accident; a routine check of the engines which resulted in a server electric shock that took his life. She returned to her father’s home, six months pregnant, with a toddler on her hip. “Those were dark days. I don’t like to think about them”, she states with a shudder. Mehrbhari, or Mehru as her family affectionately calls her, was uneducated, but possessed the skill of ralli- making, an age old craft practiced by Sindhi artisans. When her husband was alive, she would often stitch brightly colored cushions and bedspreads for own home as a hobby.

“My husband loved my handiwork, always sitting next to my while I stitched, handing me the colors he liked. I was the envy of all the girls!” she reminisces and laughs.

Mehrbhari now had the responsibility of her soon to be two children, a sick father, and three sisters upon her shoulders. She realized that if she were to survive, she would have to step up and take charge of the household, or they would all perish. The only income they had at that time was her husband’s pension, and the meagre bit of money her ailing father had saved for her sister, Sumera’s wedding. She scraped together what little she had, haggled with all the shopkeepers, and bought stitching supplies to start her own ralli making business. Night after night, she would stay awake as the household slept, to finish her first batch to sell in the market. The response was underwhelming; not many were interested in purchasing a dying art, when there were so many copies of modern designs available. Mehr was dejected but undeterred. She turned to Kashf Foundation for help, and proceeded to borrow money for better supplies, with improved ideas of market demand. Kashf Foundation also recognized her potential, and helped her sell her wares in bigger cities, where the market was varied and garnered deeper interest and a fairer price for all her hard work. Today, she has market sense, knowledge of contemporary designs and a finely honed aesthetic sense. She no longer struggles to make ends meet; rather, she manages to save up money. Her children are now all school going, and her sister is happily married to a local man, and still helps her out with the stitching.

Mehrbhari’s journey is one of the thousands of women, whose perseverance and determination to succeed are a source of inspiration. She is not only carrying forward a valuable skill and saving a dying art, but she has singlehandedly managed to turn the luck of the household around.

Nosheen Nadeem belongs to the area of Qainchi in Lahore. After her husband’s operation Nosheen realized that in order to survive and provide for her family she had to take a stand. In spite of the social stigma, Nosheen took it upon herself to create a source of income for her household in the form of a canteen stall. However, in order to do this she needed an initial investment. It was at this time that Nosheen got acquainted with Kashf Foundation and their interest free loan schemes.

After securing her loan, Nosheen saw that the biggest challenge which lay before her was the lack of support and discrimination that she received from her relatives. Nonetheless, nothing in the world was going to stand between her and her hopes of achieving success; all she saw in front of her was mere jealousy. As soon as her business was established Nosheen fell prey to her relatives’ taunts and envy but in spite of this she remained steadfast in her cause. Gradually, she saw a complete change in their behavior as her business grew. Through her business, Nosheen was able to provide a constant income for her family and educate her children.

Today, Nosheen’s business has grown massively and it has acted as a source of employment for other women in her locality as well. Currently, she has employed 8 women to work with her and gives them constant support to stand up for themselves and shun society’s stigmas regarding working women. Nosheen is now an inspiration for her relatives who feel motivated and inspired to start their own business as well. Nosheen’s main goal for the coming years is to open new branches and expand further as well as employing more women like her.

Nasreen Mian shares a house with 15 family members and with so many mouths to feed, clothe, educate and cater to, being unemployed was not an option for her. Rising expenses and uncertainty of the future compelled her to take matters into her own hands and start a stitching business.

Previously, Nasreen and her husband would struggle to meet their daily expenses but after putting her talent to use, she is able to successfully bring several changes to her household. With an initial loan of RS.20, 000, she bought a stitching machine that generated some income. Over the years, she applied for more loans and from earning nothing to becoming financially independent, Nasreen is confident that her business will expand and improve the circumstances of her home further.

Kashf loan has not only provided Nasreen the confidence to become an entrepreneur (a thought she did not even dream of having due to severe financial constraints) but pulled her family out of the clutches of poverty. Since becoming a recipient of the loan, she has wed 2 of her sons, trained her daughters and 4 other girls in the community on how to stitch, provide better nourishment for her children and gained respect in the community.

Nasreen like many other Kashf clients have a long way to go but is on the track.

Saima Baji belongs to the area of Chaudry Park in Lahore. Her world fell into despair when her husband started incurring losses in his business. With a family of 5 depending on her Saima lost her hopes on how to continue running her household without a steady income at hand. She was under the toll of poverty for the longest time. She recalls times when circumstances would be so bad that days would go on without the family having had any proper meal. Her hopes began diminishing with every passing day and all she saw ahead of her was a never ending poverty trap.

It was during such trying times that Saima was introduced to Kashf Foundation through her neighbor, who had recently taken a loan herself. Seeing the situation of her family and increasing financial hardships they were facing, Saima took a stand and met with a loan officer who encouraged her to use her skills and talent and start her own business. Her talent lay within the art of cooking and that too specifically in the field of baking. She initially took a loan of Rs. 20,000 , which she used to buy various cooking utensils and ingredients to set up. With dedication and anticipation, Saima proceeded with her baking and soon after, the business started flourishing. She not only saw an increase in her monthly income but was also able to afford her family’s meals and her children’s education.

After seeing the struggles that they had to face, Saima’s family was highly supportive of her and helped her in the setup. Her husband and children all help and assist Saima in her daily chores and now provide delivery service to customers as well. After seeing the booming effects of her business, Saima employed two people to work with her. She is now planning to expand her business more and is in the process of buying more machinery for her business.

Saima is a source of inspiration for not only her family but the whole community as well. She is now more secure in her footing and is able to provide for her family with ease. She attributes her success to Kashf Foundation which has acted as a means of liberation for her and has given her the strength to utilize her talents; Saima is now a role model for the women in her area and helps them embark on their own journey towards success.

“My life has been a series of struggles, one after another. Two of my children are blind and require full-time care. The major challenge of my life is raising both of them and helping them survive in this world. Whenever I flashback into my life, my memories are only of the difficulties I’ve faced. My wrinkles represent all the problems I have been through. My financial conditions have been extremely poor and frequently we fall short of funds, sometimes not knowing where our next meal will come from. However, I have stood beside my husband through everything without complaining. Our conditions improved 5 years back when I availed the Kashf Karobar Karza to invest in our business of milk production. With the profits that we initially earned, my husband and I could afford better care and nourishment for our children and a higher standard of living. We are now hoping to acquire more of Kashf’s financial services to buy goats and calves to increase the scales of our milk production business.”

By investing and expanding businesses, Kashf clients are able to generate income that correlates with changes in living standards, savings, enhanced nutritional intake and better food consumption, access to health care for the families, self-confidence, positive outlook in life, exposure and more.

Eight years ago, after acquiring loan from Kashf Foundation, Salma Kanwal was able to establish a doll making business from within her home. With four children to provide for, Salma needed to make ends meet, while providing a stable environment for her children to grow up in. A major source of motivation for Salma came from her desire to educate her children and so she took matters into her own hands, going against the norms of a traditional, patriarchal community and began her own business. Currently, Salma is able to produce a total of 400 dolls per week, which she hand stitches at home. She also employs a further 10-12 women from her neighbourhood who assist her in stitching dolls.

Over the next few months, Salma plans on purchasing machines which will then increase her ability to produce not only better quality dolls, but also create 1000 dolls per week. Salma’s husband is incredibly supportive of her work and she claims that without his support she would have been unable to come this far along. During her journey with Kashf for the last 8 years, Salma showed great diligence, stating that she learnt not just the skills appropriate for her business but also those that helped her in everyday life. She is now aware of how she must conduct herself and communicate with people daily. Gender differences don’t impact her behavior now, particularly when she goes out into the market; male vendors do not intimidate her as they did before. Members of the community look up to her for motivation and inspiration. Salma constantly seeks to better herself and takes every opportunity to attend Kashf training programmes.

“When you start working, even if initially there is no profit, the very experience in itself is a great lesson that helps you out in the future” says Salma.

Rehana Javaid runs a cash bag stitching business with her son, Kashif. Struck by poverty she struggled to manage her household expenditure and thus decided to start her own business. Her son assisted her in her new venture. While her son dealt with clients, Rehana handled the production. Today, a majority of their clients are banks such as The National Bank of Pakistan and Soneri Bank in major cities of Pakistan, including Lahore and Islamabad.

Owing to the techniques learnt from Kashf’s trainings, Rehana was able to successfully establish links with a wide range of clients, which resulted in the business expanding substantially, with a capacity to produce around 400 bags in one day. She currently sells these bags between Rs. 6 and Rs. 10. When the order flow increases, they employ female workers from the community who also stitch these bags from within their own homes. This business allows the duo to live a comfortable life. As someone who was never given the opportunity to attain an education, Rehana is an avid supporter of educating the youth, especially girls. Currently her daughters are in high school and she aims to send them to college as well. Rehana’s business’s success shows how gender equality in every sphere of life encourages growth and prosperity. She claims to have benefited greatly from Kashf’s gender trainings which helped her work with her son in harmony.

“I am very happy that I am in a position to educate my children. Being uneducated myself, I know first-hand what the disadvantages are and I would never want my children to suffer from them. My business allows me to achieve this particular goal and I will keep working hard to excel” says Rehana.

Rabia Hussain heads a catering business which started with humble beginnings. Living in a crowded home, Rabia and her family realized that poverty was getting the best of them. In an attempt to find an alternative source of income, Rabia started making rolls at home, which her children would sell in the local market after school. Once her sales gained momentum and people started to appreciate her cooking skills, Rabia gradually expanded her range of items. After acquiring a loan from Kashf, Rabia was able to conduct her business on a much larger scale, as she was now able to afford the necessary appliances that were necessary to conduct her business on a larger scale. Her sisters, brother and uncle also benefitted from the business expansion and held part time positions.

The business provides catering services to households for lunch and dinner parties, large scaled events such as weddings, as well as daily lunches to offices and corporations. Currently, Rabia is able to provide catering to an average of 8 private clients per month. The business allows her to accumulate a profit of approximately 35,000 rupees each month. She started the business 7 years ago and ever since her business expanded owing to the quality of her food and the competency of her service. She cites the instrumental role Kashf training programs played in furthering her business and teaching her the skills and confidence she needed to conduct her business.

“I run a business which thrives on excellence and quality. I always tell people that quality is the most crucial aspect of any item you produce” says Rabia.

“A dozen for hundred, a dozen for hundred”, shouts a street vendor in the over-crowded Baldia market in Karachi. Scores of men, women, and little children wearing similar Sindhi caps throng around the fruit vendors, buying oranges, apples, and furiously negotiating prices with stall owners. Amongst the crowd, a woman energetically packs oranges in plastic bags, working her way through a long line of customers. She looks happy, while continuously chatting with them, giving concessions to those she knows well, and quickly selling all the oranges she has brought to the market that day.

If anyone had seen Nazish a few years ago, they would not have recognized her as the woman packing oranges at the fruit stall. Even though Nazish had grown up in Karachi, she had not really set foot into such a market till she had been twenty four. At 24, tragedy had struck her household- her father passed away from a heart attack. The incident left her family in despair, and her mother, a seamstress who had been working hard for decades to make ends meet, finally put her sewing machine to rest, claiming she had neither the willpower, nor the strength, to work.

Nazish tried to help out by continuing in her mother’s footsteps, but realized she did not have the talent for stitching. “I was hopeless at it. The only thing I was good at was convincing people to get their clothes stitched from me, but once I realized I couldn’t do it, I knew I couldn’t let my powers of persuasion go to waste. I had to start something of my own, even though at that point I didn’t have the resources to do so.”

Nazish had heard of Kashf Foundation through her sister-in-law who had taken a loan from Kashf Foundation a few years back. After her father’s death, a well-wishing cousin had suggested that they should put up a fruit stall together. Seizing the opportunity, Nazish applied for a loan from Kashf Foundation – once she had received the loan, Nazish began buying fruit from the Sunday Market, to sell at the stall. It was while she started purchasing fruit for the stall that she realized she had a talent for bargaining, for interacting with people, and for convincing them to sell to her at the price she wanted. The following day she convinced her cousin to let her run the fruit stall alone. She sold the entire cart within two hours, a feat her cousin accomplished after a full day of labor.

“I would have men tease me in the beginning, stated Nazish, “asking me to go home and do what other women did. I told them I wasn’t married, that my brother had no skill to match my own, and that nobody had the right to tell me what to do or not to do. These men are now my customers, and if I am not there, they do not buy fruit that day”.

Her association with Kashf Foundation continues till this day, and Nazish is hopeful that within a year, she will be able to buy a fruit shop of her own. She has also participated in Kashf Foundation’s Financial Literacy Program. This has helped her run her business better, make it profitable, and she now employs the various marketing and promotion strategies she has learnt during the program to increase her sales, and make a loyal client base. “I never thought I could be good at being a business woman. Kashf has taught me that nothing is impossible and that one must believe in ones potential”, states Nazish. “I want my story to be a lesson to my family, and to my friends, that everyone is capable of changing their own life and that once they do, the fruit of success is the sweetest of all”.

Rehana hands a little boy a box of sweets, when he nervously asks her much he has to pay, Rehana tells him to quickly run home and share the sweets with his younger sister. Rehana smiles; she clearly remembers when she opened her convenience store four years earlier. She only had a few items stocked on her store shelves, and she would count every single penny she made. Giving an entire box of sweets for free seemed impossible to do at that time.

Rehana was eighteen when she got married. She was happy that day. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt so independent. She would finally begin a life which was not regulated by her over-bearing father. Lahore was not what Rehana had expected though. It was noisy, and the neighborhood women would make fun of her clothes and the way she spoke. Her husband, a commercial truck driver, seldom came home, and whatever money he made, would be spent on his friends and late nights of gambling and drinking.

When Rehana couldn’t pay the electricity bill the following month, she knew that it was time to muster the courage to take charge of her own life. With some money she had saved up from her wedding, Rehana rented a tiny shop in her local market. As she stood there a week later, her shelves empty but for a few boxes of soap and some bags of lentils, one of her customers told her about Kashf Foundation’s loan program.

Rehana used her first loan to stock up her store, and happily spent her first few months increasing her sales, and making friends with her frequent customers. She slowly began paying off her bills, one by one.

When Rehana’s father discovered she was operating a convenience store in a busy market place, that too all by herself, he immediately sent word to her husband to put her in place. A woman’s place was in the house he stated, not amongst men behind the counter of a corner shop. Rehana recalls that day, much to her own surprise she had mustered the courage to stand up to both her father and her husband and fight for her right to earn a decent living. She told them that she had taken control of her life with the help of Kashf Foundation, and that Kashf’s Business Development Officers had more faith in her than her own family, and that her family could not coerce her to give up her hard work and move back into a home where her there wasn’t even enough money to pay the bills. Her father stopped talking to her that day, but Rehana remained steadfast in her resolve to take charge of her life.

Four years from that day, Rehana’s relationship with Kashf continues, and her father has finally realized that Rehana’s place is behind her convenience store counter. She continues to pay all her bills on time, her husband, though still hardly home, has learnt to respect her, and let her make her own decisions. After asking her how her life has changed after she partnered with Kashf all those years ago, she replies,

“Kashf taught me the most valuable lesson; you have to fight to change your life, and, being a Pakistani woman, the struggle is harder. Kashf believes in that inherent power which a woman possesses. I am certainly a woman who controls her own life, runs her own household, and makes her own decisions.”

Multan’s sweltering summer heat had left the usually bustling alley ways of the inner city empty and silent. A middle aged woman stands proudly in her small house, holding her own daughter’s newly born daughter. “A daughter is Allah’s greatest blessing”, she says. Ayesha’s house is quaint, but beautifully adorned walls and her own radiant smile are enough to put anyone at ease. Ayesha’s story begins twenty odd years ago when she moved with her husband to Multan. Soon after getting married, Ayesha gave birth to a beautiful little boy, but her happiness was short-lived. The baby contracted typhoid after his 1st birthday, and due to lack of treatment and funds, succumbed to his illness within a few months.

The cost incurred on their son’s treatment left Ayesha penniless, and in an attempt to take her mind off her grief and to try and make ends meet, Ayesha began helping her husband with his ornaments business. Her husband, Talib, worked in a local factory and used tree bark and wheat sticks to make decoration pieces. She began experimenting with different materials, and one day, made a beautiful bird on a shard of glass. Her husband, astounded at his wife’s hidden potential and talent, spoke to a friend of his who told him about Kashf Foundation and the work they do with home-based women entrepreneurs.

Ayesha’s first loan from Kashf Foundation was used to buy raw material for her paintings. She recalls her first visit to the marketplace. “I was so scared. I had never interacted with men before. I didn’t even know what to say. By my third visit, I knew everyone, and had even started haggling on prices. I built a confidence which I never had before.”

Ayesha soon began to sell her ornaments in the local bazaar, and hired girls from her neighborhood to help her with her increasing workload. With the money she gives them, the girls have promised to save up for college. Ayesha only studied till grade 5 herself; her father forbade her from going to school and told her a woman’s place was in her home, taking care of her family. “I have managed to take care of my family though”, Ayesha says. “I provide for them financially, I put food on the table, and I have managed to buy the house we live in now. I couldn’t have been so brave, or even had this confidence in myself if Kashf hadn’t empowered me financially and helped me along the way.”

Ayesha has rented out a small shop in her local market, and 6 years after taking her initial loan from Kashf, she has inspired many other women in her community to take charge of their lives and change it, without relying on anybody else. Her neighbor, Saadia, who opened a parlor in her home after taking a loan from Kashf Foundation, earns enough to send all four of her children to school.

Ayesha claims, “There are many stories of courage and hard-work. Women like Saadia and myself, can break away from the vicious cycle of poverty only through hard work and continuous effort. We need to be the change which we wish to see in our lives.” Ayesha’s little bird paintings can be seen hung up on the walls of nearly all the houses in her community. They look hopeful, ready to fly off to chase their dreams, much like Ayesha and Saadia.

Shumaila often thought of supplementing her household income through setting up a small business but was dissuaded by everyone, especially her husband and father. As her children grew older, their household finances became less adequate – not being able to provide for the growing needs of her three children, Shumaila was stuck between conforming to expectations and providing a better life for her children. For her children’s sake, Shumaila was ready to take on the world.

Shumaila set up a small stitching business a few years ago, a simple decision to provide for a better future resulted in backlash from her family, especially her husband who accused her of being too bold. Seeing his wife earn money made him so insecure that to prove his ‘manliness’ he remarried and left Shumaila and her three toddlers to their own devices. Half-heartedly, Shumaila’s parents took her back all the while accusing her of bringing shame on the entire family.

Set back by her personal life, Shumaila realized that the only way of proving herself worthy is to work hard day and night and make the boutique successful. To make a meaningful impact, Shumaila was in need of capital injection to expand her business. Access to credit for women is limited in Haripur and while she had tried to secure some capital when she set up her business it had been in vain as the process seemed too long-drawn and the terms too complicated. Someone pointed her in Kashf Foundation’s direction which had recently opened up branches in Haripur. Shumaila approached the Kashf branch with a sense of trepidation but she was pleasantly surprised by the response.

While her family was against it, Shumaila persevered and through motivation and support from Kashf Foundation, she was able to gain access to Rs 25, 000 from Kashf Foundation with ease through a simple process. Even though, her loan tenure has only started, Shumaila has already begun to see the benefits of the loan: she is not only able to earn enough to provide for her children but also manages to give a small sum of money to her father every month. Shumaila is a motivated and committed entrepreneur and is driven to prove herself as a successful business woman. “Majority of my competitors are males, they underestimate my capabilities and taunt me to be a source of dishonor to my family but when I look at my children sleeping peacefully and my father feeling content I forget about this society and all its constraints’

There are several factors that impede the development of women in Sindh where they are discriminated against in almost all walks of life. Despite these challenges, Nasreen Saleem living in Matli; an administrative subdivision of district Badin has managed to provide food, shelter and hope for her husband and their five young children.

Working as a daily wager Nasreen’s husband was frustrated with low wages, erratic work schedules and delays in payments. There were days when he had no work and the children slept without a meal – the pressure got so much that Nasreen and her husband were always fighting and had almost reached the brink of a divorce. Wandering aimlessly on the streets of Matli, Nasreen’s husband overheard a conversation between a neighbor and Kashf Foundation’s Branch Manager. He overheard that Kashf had set up operations in the area in order to create opportunities for females to contribute to household income and couldn’t help probing into the matter.

A few weeks later Nasreen borrowed a small sum of money from Kashf and used it to purchase readymade women’s apparel. Her husband spread the word in the neighborhood about his wife’s nascent business and within a few days women from surrounding communities arrived to purchase clothes from her, for which many had to haggle since there were more buyers than the initial stock Nasreen had in her small store. As a result of this outright success, Nasreen soon became a famous retailer in the community.

“Never in my life have I been able to save above Rs2000 in a month, today my average household saving amounts to Rs18, 000 every month. My children are going to school and my husband looks at me with pride” says Nasreen while talking to a Kashf’s staff member.

Although life has changed for the family, Nasreen still worries about her children’s future. Sending them to an English medium school is now her biggest challenge. Going against the odds has now become second nature to Nasreen. Nasreen wants to expand her business by starting production of her own designs, which she would then distribute to other sales agents (women from adjoining areas) to sell on her behalf. “My plan is to include women from my community in my business model rather than paying all the money to mean shop keepers” says Nasreen. She wishes to employ female tailors and embroiderers to prepare readymade cloths which will then be sold to retailers in the market place.

Daisy Sant Ram started her teaching career in 1961 at Saint Anthony’s School in Lahore. She remembers that experience fondly, even though the school did not allow her to use her own teaching methodologies which resulted in numerous rifts with the school administration. Daisy did not have enough money to start her own school, so she spent decades saving up, penny by penny to open her own school. Her dream was to build up a place of academic excellence where she could innovate with teaching styles and methods to build a cadre of socially responsible and properly educated students.

Daisy started off with 20 students, 20 chairs and 10 tables. For years Daisy has served children belonging to low-income households and she now has more than a 100 children studying at her school, all the way up to high school. When Kashf Foundation’s Education team first met Daisy, she was teaching children how to pronounce the letters of the English alphabet.

In her first meeting with Kashf, Daisy told the team that there has been a drastic decrease in student enrollment at her school. “So many schools have opened up in this area, and parents do not care what quality of education is provided, they only care about fees”. She also told the team about the increasing stress of retaining good teachers and finding teachers that could really connect with the students. Faced with the pressures of reducing fees juxtaposed with retaining students and attracting good teachers, Daisy has been finding it difficult to stay afloat.

When Daisy heard about the Kashf Education Finance project, she was thrilled and claimed that God had heard her prayers. Daisy accessed a loan of Rs. 50,000 with which she brought new desks and chairs and renovated her school floors which had broken due to years of heavy monsoon flooding. As part of the loan conditions, Daisy’s entire school staff was mandated to undertake teacher trainings, and capacity building and leadership trainings. Moreover, all participating schools also have to include a financial education training for students in their curriculum, the training of trainers for which is conducted with all the teachers. Daisy saw these conditions as a tremendous opportunity to overhaul the school’s systems and teaching quality. Kashf Foundation has also helped Dasiy create a School Development Plan which outlines steps on how to improve the overall infrastructure of the school, increase school enrollment, and thus make the business more profitable and popular within the community.

“Kashf Foundation has not only helped me get back on my feet, but has given me the opportunity to provide better education to deserving children who cannot afford to go to expensive private schools”, Ms. Dasiy states when asked whether she would borrow from Kashf in the future. “I wish to retain my relationship with Kashf as long as I can; they are responsible for reaching out to me and helping me change lives and create better futures for children in my community.”

Aneela Shaheen,  a tenacious and visionary individual who refuses to let life’s challenges hold her back. From humble beginnings in a small conservative family in Gujrat, Aneela has defied societal norms and overcome numerous obstacles to pursue her dreams.

Raised by a supportive and open-minded mother who instilled big aspirations within her, Aneela’s world was shattered when her mother tragically passed away when she was just 14. Left with a distant and indifferent father who eventually remarried, Aneela found herself increasingly viewed as a burden within her own family. At the tender age of 15, she was forced into an arranged marriage, abruptly ending her education and assuming the role of a devoted housewife and later a mother to two children. Although grateful for her family, she couldn’t shake the feeling of unfulfillment.

Refusing to be defined by her circumstances, Aneela gradually reclaimed control over her destiny. She persevered, completing her Matric and pursuing a diploma, but her ambitions did not end there. With a desire to open her own boutique, she faced discouragement from her husband and in-laws, who believed that a woman’s place was solely within the confines of her home.

Then, in 2019, as the world grappled with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Aneela’s husband lost his job, leaving the family without a stable income. It was during this challenging period that Aneela summoned the resilience and strength instilled in her by her late mother. Recognizing a need for a safe space for women to shop for personal items in her conservative town, she established a boutique where only female employees would assist customers with support from Kashf.

Aneela’s boutique quickly became a haven for women seeking personal items, undergarments, and clothing without the discomfort of dealing with male shopkeepers’ unwelcome comments or derogatory remarks. As her business flourished, the initial discouragement from her husband and in-laws transformed into unwavering support, as they witnessed the positive impact of Aneela’s tenacity.

Today, Aneela stands as the primary breadwinner of her family, having achieved her long-held dreams against all odds. However, her aspirations extend beyond personal success. Drawing inspiration from her mother’s unfulfilled dreams for her, Aneela now envisions a bright future for her daughter, hoping to provide her with the same encouragement she once received.

Aneela Shaheen’s story is an inspiring reminder for all women that resilience, strength, and a refusal to accept societal limitations can lead to remarkable accomplishments. Through her courage and unwavering spirit, she has become a beacon of hope for all individuals facing adversity, demonstrating that with passion, hard work, and a belief in oneself, dreams can be realized against all odds.

In the small town of Dadu, there was a regular teenager Sanam. Life was carefree, with no worries or tensions clouding her days. Her father served as a constable in the Police force in Karachi, and everything seemed pretty normal. But fate had other plans in store for Sanam and her family.

Tragedy struck when her father was diagnosed with a serious liver condition. Overnight, Sanam’s world turned upside down, and she was thrust into a role far beyond her years. Gone was the innocence of her childhood, as she shouldered the responsibility of caring for her family. In the blink of an eye, Sanam transformed from a little girl to a pillar of strength.

In the face of adversity, Sanam sought assistance from her relatives, only to be met with disappointment and refusal. Undeterred, this studious student was forced to make the difficult decision of dropping out of school in the ninth grade. But her indomitable spirit refused to be quelled.

Determined to make ends meet, Sanam embarked on a journey of exploration. She ventured into giving tuition classes to neighborhood children, tapping into her academic prowess. With time, her resourcefulness expanded, and she started a clothing business by taking a small loan from Kashf. Collaborating with her mother, who skillfully sewed garments, Sanam sold these creations to her friends and teachers. As her business thrived, hope began to blossom once more, casting rays of light upon their lives.

Sanam’s unwavering efforts bore fruit. Her brothers gained access to quality education, opening doors to brighter futures. With her newfound success, Sanam proudly financed her elder sister’s wedding, taking care of all the expenses. Each step forward painted a picture of progress, but Sanam’s ambitions were far from fulfilled.

Never one to rest on her laurels, she delved further into entrepreneurship. Recognizing the potential in a dairy business and with a bigger loan from Kashf this time, she set up operations and employed her cousins and two local boys from the community. Through her leadership, Sanam not only sustained her family but also empowered those around her, offering them opportunities for growth and stability.

As the family’s primary breadwinner, Sanam carries herself with grace and a genuine smile, radiating the pride she holds for her loved ones. And while supporting her family, she never let go of her own dreams. Currently, Sanam is pursuing a degree in Biotechnology at a university in her hometown.

Sanam’s story serves as a powerful reminder that even in the face of adversity, resilience and perseverance can shape one’s destiny. From shouldering the burdens of her family to blazing her own trail of success, Sanam embodies the true spirit of determination. Her unwavering spirit and unwavering smile continue to inspire those around her, proving that with the right attitude and an indomitable will, one can triumph over any challenge and turn their dreams into reality.