Inspiring Story of a young Pakistani woman

Farah Deeba still recovering from dengue fever, the day we met her

my sister in purple smiling broadly as the students gather
Farah instructing students to line up for a group photo, the rest of us are enjoying the process.

Viola! Every one is ready FD is on the left in dark brown. The rest of us are in the background. These are only a handful of students who stayed behind. The school was closed long before we arrived after meandering through the area




Farah Deeba is a twenty three year old young woman who is doing gargantuan work that most of us only dream of. I met her through my sister, who after seeing her on a television program – Pakistan ke Asli Hero (Pakistan’s Real Heroes) - had gone to meet her in person in a suburb of Lahore. Deeba’s is an amazing story of courage, conviction and compassion.
At eighteen with 60,000 rupees secured from her father she was set to go to Saudi Arabia to perform umrah (minor hajj) in 2005. Wanderer that she is, after taking the final exams for graduationfrom college while waiting to go for umrah, decided to visit different neighborhoods in and around Lahore. She was struck by the abject poverty and hopelessness she saw in some areas. Chungi Amar Sadhu was the worst of the worst.
Men in this area gamble do drugs and are abusive to their wives and children. The hopelessness is so deep that they don’t even dare to dream for a better future. She went door-to-door gathering information for each household. At the end of the day she had 60 children ready to be fed, clothed and educated. A woman in desperate need with three daughters, a drunk of a husband on the spot signed a lease to the lower level of her house without any money in advance, purely on trust.
With LLB (law) degree that she acquired at 21 and coming from a well off and a well-educated family the expectations for a career were high. But, against the advice of family and friends, who wanted her to get a ‘real’ job and climb the corporate ladder, Farah Deeba persisted and did not budge from her decision to bring hope to this depraved and deprived community. She used 60,000 rupees for umrah as the seed money to start her free public school.
This was the genesis of Aalam Bibi Welfare Educational Welfare Organization named after Aalam Bibi her paternal grandmother. That was in September 2005. Five years later the day we met her, November 11, 2010, 319 children are being looked after - taking care of their needs of food, uniform, books, stationary, personality grooming, training, extra curricular etc. by ABEWO.
She never regretted that decision. Her devotion to her cause is so strong that she’ll forego any personal glory. When a friend who volunteered in her school arranged for a television interview in Karachi, Farah refused the offer, thinking the air fair to Karachi could feed so many children for so long. Needless to say, the friend who had gone to great length to arrange for the interview, was quite upset. Upon learning the reason for Farah’s refusal organized a fundraiser and bought the ticket for her to go to Karachi for interview that my sister and her family watched in Tarbela and followed up on the lead.

Family and friends who initially apposed Farah’s endeavors have come around and are very supportive of her work. Farah’s work though gigantic for ik nikki jaee kuri (a little petite girl) as Munnu Bhai of the daily Jang calls her in his article on her; it is the tip of the iceberg that Pakistan’s education system is. Farah believes not only in educating but civilizing these children as well. She believes there are many institutions that ‘educate’, but the ones that teach real manners are few.
That’s not all, Farah has educational and vocational program for mothers and the local women in the neighborhood of the school. She also helps out with urgent needs at home that may disrupt a child’s attendance/education, e.g. fixing or replacing leaky roof of a house.
In a culture where initially there was suspicion and mistrust, she is well respected and people believe in her mission that the street vendors unable to sponsor a child individually pool their money to do so. For a mere 500 rupees (about $6 at the current rate of 85 rupees to a dollar) a month any one can sponsor a child that guarantees his/her education, provides uniform, books and lunch as well. Farah Deeba is doing all this without any government support.
Farah has a vision to promote education with training in all the deprived areas of Pakistan, which will make Pakistan a civilized and developed country on the canvass of the world.
Summary of Farah Deeba’s educational achievements:
Graduated from college at 18
Got her law degree (LLB) at 21
Currently she is pursuing an M. Phil – a precursor to a Ph. D.