Inspiring Woman Ms. Farida is a business woman hailing from a backward area of Gilgit Baltistan

Inspiring Woman

Ms. Farida is a business woman hailing from a backward area of Gilgit Baltistan

Ms. Farida is a business woman hailing from a backward area of Gilgit Baltistan, living in Gilgit. Owing to local customs she got married at an earlier age in 1988. Her marriage did not diminish her love for education and she did her matriculation after marriage. Her husband was a banker and he did not have enough resources to support his family, so, under these circumstances she decided to help her husband in financial matters. She decided to get training from Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP) in poultry farming.
Soon afterwards, she got trained in poultry farming as well as honeybee breeding. Under financial hardships, she anyhow, managed to found an organization comprising of twelve women from Gilgit and Hunza with a little financial help from AKRSP and with a loan from micro-finance bank. Thus establishing her own business with this little help in 2008, she owned two colonies of honeybees at that time which had now grown to 160 colonies. At present she earns an average income of one hundred and thirty thousand a month. By sensing her success her husband is now supporting the business.
Apart from honeybee production, Ms. Farida also deals in vegetable production, which she sells to the local market. She is also operating a women organization named, ‘Nine star women organization’, to which she is the president since 2008. Seventeen women associations, a Montessori school, a sewing center, a poultry farm and a dairy firm are running under her supervision. She had made this all possible out of nothing with a little financial and technical support from AKRSP.
Over and above, this strong lady has visited all big cities of Pakistan and supplying honey from north to south. Moreover, she has represented the region and working women in multiple countries including Bhutan, Nepal and Thailand where she also displayed her products in international exhibitions with the help of Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) and AKRSP.
Ms. Farida recalls her memories when she first started. She says it was difficult to go out of home because of family’s resistance, society’s discriminatory behavior towards women and due to lack of resources. But now, things had changed and people see me as a pioneer in public sphere and a successful business woman. Women from different walks of life seek my suggestions and support in multiple fields. I feel privileged by supporting the women and bring them forth in such a conservative society. I am also blessed to support and led a happy and prosperous family, she concluded.
 

By: Zeeshan Ali
The writer is a MPhil Scholar in QAU, Islamabad and manages GB Awareness Forum