Hameeda, 38-year-old mother of three studied only till Grade eight. When she married and migrated to a new city, she faced many hardships as her husband was not very regular at work and would change jobs often. Even the little money he earned he would not use to support the family.
When Hameeda was pregnant, she had no access to the nutritious meals that a pregnant mother needs. Added to this her husband’s family did not provide care to her and stopped speaking to her, cutting Hameeda off emotionally from others. Hameeda was bound to the four walls of her house without any contact with the outside world. She would sit and ponder on all that she was going through for months, and she slowly started slipping into depression.
Her mother took note of her deteriorating health and took her to a government hospital where she was diagnosed with severe depression and was put on medication. She battled through this for many years and continued to be under medication (psychological treatment).
Being in this state of discouragement for many years, coming to know of our partner in India and their projects was a beam of comfort to her. She quickly joined our vocational tailoring program.
“It has been like a breakthrough in my life. I now have such a friendly and positive atmosphere to spend time in, a steady friend circle, and some good encouragement to do something in life,” she says.
Because she hadn’t competed formal schooling nor had any job-related skills, she was always low on confidence. Now after completing the tailoring course, she can take small orders and stitch clothes for her neighbours in the community – this she feels is indeed a commendable initiative that she has taken in her life, as she is now able to support her family financially.
More importantly, there has been a bigger change in Hameeda. Each time she encountered a problem or had to make a decision, she would lack confidence and could not handle uncertain situations – primarily because of her medication – and all that she could do to face the situation was to sit and cry. Gradually things started changing due to the regular engagement and the support and counselling that she received from our partner team. Hameeda has improved to the extent that she has reduced her medication and her consulting doctor has been happy with her progress.
“I want to thank the team and our donors for giving me such a life changing training opportunity,” she says. “The staff respected me and treated me as an equal instead of looking down on me as a woman. Usually in our community women are looked down upon and women usually can’t talk to other men, nor are they allowed to sit or socialize with others. So, I was happy to see that everyone is being treated equally and that men are treating women equally. My time here feels of my yesteryears of childhood where I had all the freedom and choice in life. It has changed my life.”
