A CASE STUDY:

Huma Barlas iis a 38 years old woman who was born in a well settled family of Karachi. Her father was an Engineer and used to work in Saudi Arabia so her family was settled in Saudi Arabia. She got her education from Saudi Pak embassy school. She has 1 brother and 1 sister. She got married in Narowal District of Punjab at the age of 22 years with her first cousin. Her husband Mr. Amir was a government servant with a low salary income, however her in-laws were very supportive.

She opened a beauty saloon and earned a good living. She was very happy and having good life with her supportive family. Tragedy struck her when her mother in law got seriously ill and after few days her father in law also got seriously ill both of them were admitted in Lahore Shalimar hospital for 8 months and ultimately by 13 days difference both of them passed away.

The tragedy started with the illness of her parents in law. Who were admitted in Lahore Shalimar hospital for 8 months but they could not survive and expired. A lot had been spent on their treatment especially, the saloon suffered a lot and the final blow was received by her husband’s extermination from the job. It was difficult for them to even pay school fee of their school. It was a very tough time for the family as they were dignified people and could not share their situation with anyone.

She wanted to start beauty saloon at her home again but had not enough money to run the saloon then one day her neighbor told her about MOJAZ Foundation’s micro credit program she took Rs. 12,000 loan and purchased some things for beauty saloon. Her sister also supported her in setting up new saloon. She started her saloon and soon her saloon started doing well and her old clients came back. She started giving grooming and make up courses to girls. She started earning Rs. 20,000 per month and her husband also started his job again. All the claims were paid and she purchased for her family a T.V, Washing Machine etc by her own earning. She attended a three days training titled; “Enterprise Development Program” arranged by MOJAZ Foundation. TThis training enabled her to understand that how she can manage her beauty saloon income, expenditure and saving in a better way. She is also playing an active role in the society after attending community Management Skill Training Program of MOJAZ Foundation.

She took another loan of Rs. 30,000. . .From this money she upgraded her saloon and started a boutique where she prepares dresses for export purpose. She thanked MOJAZ Foundation for the financial support and training programs which enabled her to become successful small entrepreneur.

Khala Sughra

53 years old Sughra bibi wife of 75 years old Wazir Ali lives in the district Narowal and she is famous as Khala Sughra in her community. Her fine and beautiful hand embroidery is her popularity factor in the vicinity.

She was in this business since her marriage time. Sughra bibi got married at early age, at the time of her marriage she was 18 years old. Sughra bibi is Wazir Ali’s second wife. His first wife expired because of tuberculosis. He had two daughters from her first wife. Wazir Ali never provided the financial assistance to the family and showed no interest in family problems so Sughra bibi had to work hard to earn her family livelihood right from the beginning. Being a motivated strong lady Sughra started doing embroidery at her home to make both ends meet. As she was only Quran literate and learned sewing clothes and different types of embroidery from her mother. She started working by taking small order from her neighbors and family friends. In the beginning her income was meager. The reason was less orders and limited resources to purchase required raw materials.

Her first loan was from MFI working in Narowal from sometimes and tried to make her business flourish. But at that time her sales were not enough as her work was not according to the market demands. Then she heard from someone that there is an institution by the name of MOJAZ Foundation which provides financial and non financial support for enterprise support & development and capacity building. She took her first micro loan of rupees 10,000 thousand and purchased required raw material for the expansion of her business. She bought some cloth and embellishment material for making dresses.

MOJAZ also provided her special assistance in the modern designing techniques and proper colour scheming through their vocational and technical centre by the name of “Hunar Nagar” where the women artisans are getting training of stitching, cutting, hand embroidery and handicrafts making. At this centre women are also provided with designs, Meanwhile, she attended a training session arranged by MOJAZ Foundation on “enterprise development Program”. This training program enables her to understand the best practices of small enterprise that can lead towards the successful small businesses. She came to know where should she spend money to earn well, how she should save money? And what is the proper investment channel? She acted upon all useful advices of trainers and expanded her business. After the preparation of dresses market access was a problem, MOJAZ Foundation solved this by arranging first local women owned exhibition at Narowal. She displayed all her dresses at the exhibition and sold 33 suits, and got new orders for dresses. She is also suffering from diabetes, blood pressure and heart ailments. She is treating her cancer in shoukat Khanam Hospitals Lahore. She had gone through 13 surgeries for her heart and cancer treatments and she can now afford the costly treatments. The exhibition by MOJAZ Foundation was blessing for her. She was very happy at the end of exhibition and thanked MOJAZ Foundation that enabled her -to carry on her treatment and gave her courage, right direction and above all a proper platform to move forward.