Women’s Economic Empowerment; Shahida’s story

31-year-old Shahida is a micro-entrepreneur with dreams of growing her small home-based business into a boutique within five years.

With a family of seven, Shahida and her husband want to save every rupee possible to invest in their three children’s education to give them brighter futures.

Encouraged by her mother and husband, Shahida has been stitching clothes for over 12 years and runs a business from her own home employing five women. Despite this success, she had not been  able to expand further.

Thanks to the British Asian Trust and Target Foundation’s Women’s Economic Empowerment programme, our local partner Kaarvan Crafts Foundation was able to provide Shahida with training to build her skills in financial literacy, business operations and access to markets.

This gave her an better understanding the value of her services, she readjusted her pricing and is now making an increased profit per order.

Shahida said “The business training has been extremely beneficial for me. I have started paying attention to smaller details I didn’t notice before. I now log my investment, record my work and calculate how much I am earning which helps to save extra money. For example, before I used to purchase raw materials to fulfil each order, whereas now I keep a stock of materials to reduce overall costs.”

 “Through the programme, I realised that I have not been using my centre to its full potential as I was only taking orders from my community. During industry visits and through mentorship sessions, I built contacts in the broader market and started taking their orders as well. This had a significant impact on my business and my lifestyle. My business is flourishing and so is my income.”

With our support, Shahida is now well on the way to moving her business from her own house, expanding and hiring more women to achieve her dream of opening a boutique in the next five years.