Success Story of Ms Shamim

Ms Shamim is a vocational trainer at the “Functional Literacy and Life Skill center” Kotli pain under Friends Pakistan/ The Onaway Trust project. She is thirty seven years old. She is married and has three children. Her elder daughter Samera is eighteen years old. She has two sons, Jazeb who is sixteen years old and Saad who is fourteen years old. She lives at Mohalla Bagh Shinkiari a nearby village of the town Shinkiari. Her household size is comprised of five members including her husband and her three children.

Ms Shamim is extremely vulnerable woman as she has faced worse financial crises in her life. Her husband is very older than her as he is nearly elderly. She was compelled to get married by her parents against her will with a person who was very older than her. The health of her husband was not good ever since she married him. His health even deteriorated with the turn of each passing year after the establishment of their matrimonial relation. The latest situation of his health is that, he is seriously sick and is unable to continue earning living for his family. He is sick since last few years and his treatment is going on.

This situation put additional burden on the shoulder of Ms Shamim. She is the only bread winner for her family. All three children of hers are continuing their studies. They are living in a rented house. When her husband was doing job, his income was meager, could meet only basic needs of his family. So no saving was possible from his meager income for the rainy days. Ms Shamim has to bear the daily food expenses, educational expenses of her children, expenses of house rent and expenses of utility bills etc. Along with this, she has also to bear the expenses of treatment of her husband. High inflation rate during past one and half year in Pakistan has made her anxious as it is not even possible for her to fulfill the food needs of her family in her salary.

She is a literate lady and is also very skillful in the vocational skills such as sewing, embroidery and preparation of decoration items. Although she is facing very hard times in her life but still she is not willing to give up. The solution to her problems is that she considers might be the good education of her children which may lay a foundation for their prosperous future. She really recognizes the importance of education and technical skills. Her elder daughter Samera has passed the intermediate level of education at the college and she is planning to facilitate her in her admission in the degree classes. Her two sons are also studying at high school level.

She says, “She witnessed terrible time in her life when her husband became unable to do earning for her life. He was very worried about the future of his family and his children. The excessive anxiety of his snatched away his sound sleeps. But as I had vocational skills so I tried to console him and took the responsibility to feed the family including him. Since then, I have been up to the task, and saved the family from starvation though the burden on me risen manifolds after my commitment with my husband. I will say, education and technical skills are indispensable for every girl, which will be helpful for effectively disposing their life activities and will also equip them to face hard times situations in their lives. She really appreciates the role of Friends Pakistan/On Away Trust for their intervention for the uplift and betterment of the girls in the area of Kotli Pain”.   back