14/12/2014
As she stood in a dimly lit, sweltering classroom in the particularly hot summer of 2011, something in Shaeza Ahmad’s heart changed. She stood back to admire the story she and the boys had chalked down on the board for English class. This was at Rabtt`s first Summer Camp- which was always brimming with vitality, despite the heat. She was inspired. And that was the first of many stories.
Upon her graduation from LUMS, she joined Akhuwat, Pakistan’s Largest Microfinance Institution, which provides interest free loans to empower the poor- and flourishes on the principles of brotherhood and volunteerism. Soon after her appointment, under the mentorship of Dr. Amjad Saqib and Prof. Syed Hussain Haider she was promoted to become the coordinator for Akhuwat’s Internship and Leadership Program, where students from a diversity of backgrounds come together to share their stories, and to learn the stories of the downtrodden, the marginalized, and the impoverished in our society today. Through the program, the leaders of tomorrow learn----through a series of projects, visits, and training sessions, ----the stories of Akhuwat’s borrowers- who are hardworking entrepreneurs bent upon changing the trajectory of their lives, of Khawaja Sirah’s whose harsh lives have not weakened their resolve to live, about the modest wishes of terminally ill children, and the sweet simplicity of the lives of special children----stories of how the path to happiness comes when we learn to give a piece of ourselves to those who suffer unimaginable pain. The program she conducts is bent upon instilling the values compassion and empathy, and brotherhood in the youth- values that are pertinent for Pakistan today.
In the future she hopes to collect more stories- as it is indeed the stories that we share which have the power to change our hearts and open our minds. Shaeza can be reached at [email protected].