Forty-year-old Reza Begum lives in Khilgaon Railgate Squatter with her three children. Life for her has been difficult from an early age, when her father went missing and her mother had to move to the city to find work.
She started begging when she was only seven years old and spent much of her childhood roaming the streets, begging for food trying to survive. When she was old enough, Reza got married to a rickshaw puller who later turned out to have addiction issues and regularly abused his family. He also had three children from a previous marriage that Reza was completely unaware of until after their marriage.
In order to survive and feed a now growing family, Reza started brick breaking. There she found out from a peer about SAJIDA Foundation and their initiatives. She reached out to the organization and was soon admitted into their Amrao Manush program in 2017. After a three day-long training on business and money-management, Reza finally received a block grant.
Reza turned her life around completely. With the money she received, she started her own business of selling bricks to different vendors and slowly widened her scope. Soon, she was employing others like her from the community and giving poor women a chance to live better. Now, Reza has a group of fellow women who run the business of breaking and selling bricks.
“I am finally able to give my children a good life, and a promise of a better tomorrow with the education they deserve!”