The third woman is a successful social entrepreneur. She received a micro-loan from an NGO to the value of approximately 20,000 rupees ($235), after her husband lost his job. With the loan, she started a business from home, buying items from a Cash & Carry and making door to door sales. She travelled 450km round trips from Rawal Pindi to Peshawar in order to buy stock for 50% less.
She told me she makes a 6000 rupees profit every month (30% of the capital money). I looked at this woman, and then looked at myself, and then at the situation of the unemployed people in developed countries, and could see that the solution will come from here, from Mariam.
I promised her that I will be visiting again in a years’ time and asked her what she thought she would have achieved by then. She just smiled and told me: ‘I’ll have a small shop by then’.
This was the icing on the cake of my visit to Pakistan. When we visited the flood affected areas, we found that poverty is very, very resilient, and is well equipped with metaphorical tools, machineries and arms to destroy life. However, I saw that the people are more resilient. They are in partnership with resilience, perseverance, determination and strong will. I believe they will achieve this and rebuild their livelihoods.
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