Women's Economic Empowerment: Sobia and Saba's story
Sobia and her young family were struggling to survive on her husband’s income as an auto-rickshaw driver. They didn’t have enough for their children to eat properly and worried about being able to pay school fees. Like most women in Pakistan – where only 24% of the labour market is female - the women in her family were not expected to work.
However, when Sobia heard about the business training offered through the British Asian Trust’s ‘Driving Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme’ (DWEE) she seized the opportunity to gain new skills.
DWEE enables women from marginalised communities to set up a businesses or secure long-term employment. It’s run in collaboration with local partners and is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s UK Aid Match Fund. Over the last three years, DWEE has empowered over 7,000 women.
Sobia met her business partner Saba when they both attended the beautician course. After also attending business development training they set up a beauty salon together.
Their business is now thriving, Sobia’s children are doing well and best of all she has earned enough to gift her husband a brand – new auto rickshaw.
Sobia says “ We are now independent and have the freedom to do as we choose” and Saba adds “Due to these trainings, I have been able to move forward in my life”.
The impact of the DWEE programme goes beyond Saba and Sobia as these two women have become role models in their communities, inspiring other women to learn new skills and gain employment.
DWEE enables women from marginalised communities to set up a businesses or secure long-term employment. It’s run in collaboration with local partners and is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s UK Aid Match Fund. Over the last three years, DWEE has empowered over 7,000 women.
Sobia met her business partner Saba when they both attended the beautician course. After also attending business development training they set up a beauty salon together.
Their business is now thriving. Sobia’s children are doing well and best of all she has earned enough to gift her husband a brand–new auto rickshaw.
Sobia says: “We are now independent and have the freedom to do as we choose”. Saba adds: “Due to these trainings, I have been able to move forward in my life”.
The impact of the DWEE programme goes beyond Saba and Sobia as these two women have become role models in their communities, inspiring other women to learn new skills and gain employment.
Watch Soba and Sabia tell their story:
Video Transcript:
SOBIA: We met at Hunar Foundation* while taking the beautician course together.
SABA: We decided to be partners due to our friendship.
SOBIA: So far our friendship has worked out well.
SOBIA: Before this I was a housewife, and my husband drives an auto-rickshaw. It was hard to run the household on a single income.
BASHIR (SOBIA’S HUSBAND): I could barely meet my expenses. I always used to struggle to pay rent. We were always stressed about having to pay the school tuition fees due to our low income.
SOBIA: I don’t want my kids to also run an auto-rickshaw. I want to give my kids a bright future. This was my main motivation to learn, in order to support my family. I found out about this training through a friend. I underwent a number of trainings including a beautician course, business development training to learn how to manage and grow my business, maintain a budget and manage our expenses. We also took the soft training skills training to learn how to communicate and manage clients. We gained confidence due to this, and are now independent and have the freedom to do as we choose.
SABA: Due to these trainings, I have been able to move forward in my life and now run a salon.
SOBIA: Now I have started my own business, and my home conditions have improved. My children are going to a better school, have access to quality education, and are now eating well. Due to my higher earnings. I was able to gift my husband a brand-new rickshaw.
BASHIR (SOBIA’S HUSBAND): Since Sobia has opened her salon, we are able to afford all our household expenses. Now my wife also earns and supports me in running the household
SOBIA: When I got married into this family, the women didn’t used to work. Now they are also learning new skills and working.
*The Hunar Foundation is one of our local partner organisations.