People often feel safe walking on beaten tracks but then we have another kind of daring people who like to explore new pathways and love to leave their marks for the others as well. Despite hailing from a locality having little inclination towards fashion designing, Bakhtawara Bibi {20), from Muslim Bagh, Killa Saifullah, took a daring decision by opting training in fashion category under the Revitalizing Youth Entrepreneurship (RYE) project.

Abdul Khaliq, the father of Bakhtawara, works as a guard at a local private school. The family of 8 including her and her 5 siblings (2 sisters, 3 brothers) of her have been dependent upon his salary, which has not been enough even to sustain the necessities of the life.

“It has always been my big fascination to sew dresses in different styles but had no idea that someday I would be able to learn these precious skills,” says Bakhtawara. She had been desperately looking for some opportunity, to help her to earn even minimal income but the lack of both education and any productive skill, had been obstructing her plans. When Bakhtawara learnt about the training opportunity and that too being offered very close to her home, it was like a dream come true for her.

Bakhtawara found the training methodology very practical and useful, she learned the sewing and stitching techniques for designing trendy dresses. Herself being a keen learner Bakhtawar acquired these skills in couple of weeks. She continued to pay attention on her learning and a two month’s training cum internship proved to be a lifetime opportunity for her.

After setting up a home-based tailoring enterprise, Bakhtwara started to receive some orders from the women in her neighborhood who would pay her the tailoring charges for stitching their dresses. "The wages of my work are not high in my locality since people here belong to low-income groups, however, I am quite hopeful that gradually, I will explore markets beyond my locality as well. The young lady now generates around Rs 5,000/month, which is not a big amount apparently but for Bakhtawara, this small amount matters a lot as it is the money that she has earned herself.

The exposure and the experience that Bakhtawara has gained through the RYE project has transformed her into a more confident person who is looking forward to assuming the future challenges of life.