Nabila* is an 18-year-old villager girl who lives in a mud house without any facilities. She has 6 sisters, but her parents have always considered them a burden.
In Pakistan, a woman’s parents are expected to pay her groom’s family a significant dowry. Three of her sisters are already married, and her parents arranged their dowry with great difficulty.
However, her sisters are not happy in their husbands’ houses as the husbands’ families continue to demand more dowry. Nabila told us that her parents are already in great debt.
While Nabila wants to become a teacher, her parents do not have enough resources for her to pursue her dream. Seeing her parents’ debt and her married sister’s condition, Nabila decided to learn sewing skills as a way to earn income.
She hopes that one day she will earn money not only for herself but for her family, too. She is very grateful to RAM for her enrollment.
Unfortunately, the dowry system in Pakistan leads to daughters being viewed as financial burdens. Parents often sell girls into domestic servitude, prostitution, and forced marriages.
Going into debt to pay a dowry is also a driving force behind families taking out loans from brick kiln factory owners.
However, at our vocational training program, women and girls are offered a safe place to learn an in-demand and marketable skill, basic good business practices, and become educated on their rights as women under the law.
Would you like to support our sewing classes? Just $25 sponsors one month of tuition for a student! You can also sponsor a sewing machine for $90.
Learn more by visiting our gift program here.
*Name changed for security purposes.
RUKHSANA’S STORY | EARNING RESPECTFULLY
Rukhsana* is a 16-year-old girl from a village who loved sewing. But, as a villager, her father did not allow her to go to sewing school or pay fees. Instead, he preferred that she got married. However, Rukhsana’s mother knew that our sewing school was free and that...
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14-year-old Hira* belongs to a very poor family in a village. Her father is a farmer, but a winter drought badly affected their crop, and they’re living hand-to-mouth. Unfortunately, Hira and her siblings are affected by an unknown condition causing developmental...
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Hameed* lives with his family at a brick kiln. At the beginning of December, the whole family fell sick with symptoms similar to influenza. Hameed, who was already living hand to mouth, did not have money to provide even food and warm clothes to his family, let alone...
