A successful business woman

By Oushaque Rojhani

“Help people help themselves” is the basis of HDF projects in Pakistan. Given some resources and skills, most people are capable of finding solutions to their problems. To this end HDF arranges training workshops to help people learn new skills and choose the right business to earn some extra income.

Twenty three year old Saeeda Mullah lives in Qadir Bux Mullah village in Shamsabad, Sind project area. Most of the people in this village are poor. Average household income is Rs.1500 per month. Saeeda lives with her mother, three brothers and one sister. Like other men in the village, her two older brothers are laborers and work for daily wages, while Saeeda and her mother and sister cut grass, like other women, and sell it at the end of the day for Rs. 20-30.

As the people are very poor and can’t afford a decent meal, most of them eat bread with pickles. Pickles is a very cheap commodity and easily available.

Saeeda joined the local Development Organization (DO), Gul Mohammad Mullah DO. A DO is a village based organization of the local volunteers which is organized in all HDF projects to get local people involved in its projects. In one of the DO meetings the idea of training for making pickles and selling it in the Shamsabad market was discussed. Saeeda, after giving it some thought, decided to go for it. After a few days she attended a workshop organized by HDF for making various kinds of pickles. Ten other women also participated in this training program. Now four out of these ten have a successful pickle making business. Saeeda is one of them. She has left grass cutting. She buys the raw material available locally at a reasonable cost, makes pickles and sells it in the local market. She makes about Rs.40-50 daily. She is very thankful to HDF for giving her this opportunity.