This is an inspiring story of a brave woman, Hasbunnisa (Marvi Shaikh), who strongly believes that anyone finding themselves in hopeless circumstances should endeavor to make something good out of that situation and achieve success in life through courage and constant struggle. Hasbunnisa belongs to Orangi Town, the world’s largest slum located in the North-West periphery of Karachi. She was keenly interested in getting education since childhood but faced tough situation because of her traditional middle-class family as money always has an inverse relation with education for the dwellers of Orangi. She worked hard in school; faced challenges but always managed to assimilate herself into new situations. She finally convinced her parents in allowing her to receive more education. Fortune smiled on her and she explored a wonderful opportunity. She came to know about ‘The US Summer Sisters Summer Exchange Program’. This program encourages gifted, low- to middle-income female high school students from Pakistan to explore education and career options through pre-college programs at US universities. She applied and got selected for this exchange program.
After successfully completing her exchange program she returned to Pakistan and passed her secondary school examination with good grades. She got married after secondary school however, fortunately, her husband, who is a Police Constable, remained very supportive and hence Hasbunnisa enrolled in college. She passed intermediate examination as a married mother. Currently, Habibunnisa is studying in final year of her Bachelor of Arts degree. However, accomplishing the goal of earning a degree while parenting is neither glamorous nor easy, but Hasbunnisa never lets anyone or anything to have a dampening effect on her motivation. After realizing from her experience that in social isolation, education creates barriers instead of opening doors, she supports marginalized families through education. She bears educational expenses of the students who cannot afford to pay for their studies. She also outreaches medically underserved and neglected families of her community to provide them high quality free of cost health services through Saylani Welfare International Trust. Besides, she also provides groceries to struggling families.
Making efficient use of all the available resources to serve her community, Hasbunnisa has also established a small business setup for uneducated and unemployed families to make them earn their livelihood respectfully. Hasbunnisa updates all her social work-related activities on Facebook so that needy people and families can reach out and avail benefits. She along with her network of friends loves to help people.
Hasbunnisa is a true source of inspiration and PUAN wishes this brave woman all the best in her virtuous cause of helping needy people.
