Seamstress Freeda heralds buoyancy for a woman headed family
Fareeda Raziq, 24, was only 3 years old when her father died. Neither she nor her elder sister, Saima, can recall what happened that day when the sole income earner of the family left them forever. Their mother, Mussarrat, who was only 29 at the time, was left to look after her two young girls and her son, Kamran, who was just six-months-old at the time, on her own.
Since her husband died, Mussarat and her family eked out a meager living, depending solely on benevolence of her dead husband’s brothers, who barely supported their basic food needs.
The family lived in a tiny mud house in a village in the rough mountainous terrain, in the Galliat region in northwest Pakistan. To get to the village from the nearest town requires an hour’s journey in a 4x4 car on a zigzag hilly road which is always vulnerable to landslides during the monsoon season and plagued by snow, mud, and ice during the winter.
Freeda’s tiny mud house on a small patch of land gives look of a common structure of houses in Galliat
Mussarrat struggled to pay the school expenses of her two daughters from primary to middle school and that of her son up through secondary school. In the village, girls are only able to attend classes up until middle standard. After that, they are required to travel to a big town, something most families cannot afford. Instead, most girls study at home for their secondary school exam. Boys, on the other hand are able to finish their secondary education.
Both Fareeda and Saima finished their education by studying at home and taking the examination before a local education board. Their brother, Kamran, on the other hand, was able to finish his classes in the village high school and is now studying at a private technical college in Abbottabad. After her exams, Saima was married to a man in Abbottabad. The expenses of her marriage were paid by her paternal uncles.
“Fareeda’s spirit of relentless enterprise makes her [an] inspiring [example] to entrepreneurs who stand as evidence [that the] remote mountainous area [is] changing for the better,” says Mobin Qammar
Like many of the women in the village, Mussarrat had little education. Her education was not that important to her at first. She lived healthy and contented life until the death of her husband. His absence and the hardships and challenges she endured over the course of 19 years caused her to face serious health problems in the form of hypertension and a kidney stone.
Unlike women from the cities, rural women do not work in offices. Instead, they work at homes and keep themselves indulged in number of activities, such as: knitting, stitching, and embroidery.
“I had a bit of knowledge about stitching and local traditional embroidery [which I] learnt from my mother, but it was the tailoring training of two-and-half-months, imparted by World Vision that I learnt new techniques and developed linkages in the market for sale of my products. The innovations enabled me to earn approximately 10,000 rupees ($100) per month,” said Fareeda. “During and after the training, I have been provided a sewing machine, raw cloth, a cupboard and other material by World Vision,” she added.
“Fareeda’s spirit of relentless enterprise makes her [an] inspiring [example] to entrepreneurs who stand as evidence [that the] remote mountainous area [is] changing for the better,” says Mobin Qammar, World Vision’s Project Coordinator for the women’s enterprise development program. “Her story is a message of empowerment and dedication for all social entrepreneurs. Fareeda wins many accolades and heralds as the pin-up woman for the women entrepreneurs of Galliat,” concludes Mobin.
Local children wearing smile on their faces with uniforms stitched by Freeda
“I started stitching the local school children’s uniforms and now through the linkages made by World Vision, I am receiving orders from hotels in Nathiagali for stitching bed-sheets and bed-covers,’ she says, adding with pride that these orders further increase her income. Nathiagali is a tourists’ resort with luxurious hoteling and shopping facilities, attracting thousands of tourists every year from inland and abroad.
“We have conducted trainings and arranged exposure visits of the community women to other entrepreneurs for innovative learning and for finding new avenues of marketing their products,” she added. “World Vision has established a display center in its Women Skills Development Center in Nathiagali where women from the community sell their products [to tourists] at gainful prices,” concludes Arzana.
“We were very much concerned about the treatment of our mother that costs PKR1, 500 ($15) per month,” an amount Fareeda is able to pay now.
“Half of my income is generated from the World Vision’s Women Skill Development Center (WSDC) by selling my products, while half of it I earn by designing and stitching the dresses of women and children from community,” explains Fareeda, relieved to be able to now care for her mother. “We were very much concerned about the treatment of our mother that costs PKR1, 500 ($15) per month,” an amount Fareeda is able to pay now. In addition to her mother’s ongoing care for her hypertension, she is also saving her money to pay PKR 20,000 ($200) for her mother to have surgery to have the kidney stone removed as soon as possible. The earning by Fareeda fluctuates on a monthly basis both from WSDC and from the communities based on increased demand at village level and sale ratio at WSDC, but her average income is up to PKR 10,000 ($100) per month.
“The quality of uniforms stitched by Freeda is much better than the ready-to-wear uniforms which people buy from Abbottabad and other towns,” says Samina, the local schoolteacher. “Besides, they are affordable by the communities [in part because] they get [them] at their doorsteps.”
My brother, Kamran, had been getting support for his technical education from my sister, Saima, but now I am also helping him and this is a matter of great pleasure for me,” says Fareeda, with a spark of delight in her eyes.
World Vision staffers are examining the products made by women trained on entrepreneurship at a display corner of Women Skill Development Centre at Nathiagali by World Vision
“Funded by World Vision Australia, we, under the Women Enterprise Development (WED) project, work in 10 villages of [the] Galliat region for women empowerment, through small enterprises like tailoring, embroidery and candle making,” said Arzana Iqbal, World Vision Enterprise Development Coordinator.