Nazreen Bano

Skill and willpower are two things that help a person in achieving his/her goal in life. We all know that every person has some skills and if that person can recognize and work towards improvising their skills and abilities, then he/she can lead their family towards becoming self-reliant and self- sufficient.
This story is about Nazreen Bano mother of Umra Mukhtar CH ID 658621, a sponsored child at PRJ subproject of CFCA Delhi, currently pursuing B.Com (Bachelors in Commerce). This family comprises of 5 members, which includes Umra’s father Mr. Mohammad Mukhtar, who drives an E-rickshaw to support his family. Umra’s twin sister, named Bushra Mukhtaar who is also pursuing B.Com 2nd year with Umra, a younger brother Abu Taha, who is currently in L.KG. (Lower Kinder Garten) and her mother Nazreen Bano.
Umra’s sponsorship began in September 2011 at that time her father was a mechanic in a motor repairing shop. He had no fixed income. Her mother was a house wife. They were struggling for children’s education and family needs. Since they belong to a Muslim family so, mother was not permitted to work outside. But when she joined CFCA program especially after joining mothers group she saw that there were lots of mothers who have skills and have undertaken one or the other task and are proving to be a helping hand for their family’s overall growth and development. One day she went to her home and told her in-laws that she would also like to do some work in order to support her family income, but she got a negative response from her in-laws but she never lost hope. Day by day she started sharing with her in-laws about the positive journey of other sponsored mothers who are enriching their skills and supporting their families as well. Whenever CFCA staff would visit her house, they also shared about the program and how Nazreen could enhance her skills and also help her family at the same time. Finally her in-laws agreed and that how Nazreen’s journey began.
Nazreen Bano had acquired the skills of stitching from her parents long before her marriage but in order to enhance and improvise that she joined the tailoring training program in the CFCA community center. There she started learning how to sew clothes in a professional manner and when she learned to sew in a good manner, she started her work by stitching fall and pico on sarees. Thereafter she started sewing the clothes of some CFCA family members and started to generate a little amount of money for her family. At that time she had no sewing machine so, she was sewing clothes through the CFCA tailoring unit. After a few months through her saving, she purchased a second-hand sewing machine. Then she started sewing clothes at her home.
She always participates in community-based activities and attends the mothers’ group meeting with great joy. One day during her sponsored mother’s group meeting she shared about the problem of second-hand sewing machine then the CFCA staff and mothers motivated her to take loan from her mother’s group for a new sewing machine. She discussed about the loan option with her husband, to which he readily agreed. She took a loan from her SMG and purchased a new sewing machine. Today, she is sewing clothes for community members on a large scale and generates income for her family.
Umra’s father also didn’t have any fixed source of income and hence was not able to manage his family expenses. One day her father told Nazreen that he wanted to buy an E-rickshaw so that he could support his family in a better way. They started collecting some money to buy an E-rickshaw, Umra’s father had some money but it was not sufficient enough to buy E-rickshaw then Nazreen told her husband about some money that she had saved through her tailoring work, and told that he could use the same as well to purchase E-rickshaw. After that they purchased E-rickshaw and now Umra’s father is driving his own E-rickshaw and working hard to support his family in a better way.
Umra is a sponsored child as well as a member of Youth Forum. She actively participates in a youth forum meeting and community based activities. She also learned Heena (Mehndi) during the summer training program at CFCA community center. During her schooling she also took part in Heena competition and won prize as well. During the “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsava” various competitions were organized at CFCA Community center. She also took part in Mehndi competition. She won second prize in this competition. After lots of practice and hardwork, Umra has now started applying Mehandi during wedding and other festive occasions, through this she also has started earning some money to contribute towards her family needs and is also able to support some part of her education.
Umra and her family are really very grateful to CFCA through which they could enhance their skills and potentials and help their family move forward. Nazreen says that if CFCA would not have been there, then I and my family would not have been able to walk our way out of poverty and would not have been able to educate our children and make them successful.