Submitted by adnan on Tue, 09/14/2021 - 16:07
Azra Bibi
Azra Bibi – Turning Adversity into Victory

Coming from a very small town of Havelian, a family of seven had very few resources to sustain themselves. Misfortune had it; Azra Bibi’s husband met with a serious accident where both his kidneys failed and suddenly was unable to provide for his family. Already living from neck to neck, Azra Bibi had to take charge of her family on her own but confusion struck her as to how to create a running source of income.

It was in her ordeal times when a loan officer of Khushhali Microfinance Bank Limited (KMBL) reached out to the family offering them microloan to start off with a small shop in their area. Azra Bibi did not hesitate and took the opportunity promptly where she took her first loan from KMBL back in 2014. Azra Bibi was sensible enough to know exactly how to utilize the capital at hand and had the determination to make good use of her present for the family’s future.

A local shop was inaugurated with the first loan she received from the bank; where she started off with getting a minor income to support major essential costs. The journey was not easy. Azra Bibi had to provide for five of her kids and one seriously ill husband along with a newly formed business; but with the support of her family and strong determination, it started to pay off really well. Her business got stability where the family’s standard of living began to improve. All of her children resumed their education in good institutes and husband began to gain health.

After 7 years of constant struggle, Azra Bibi is now the owner of a bigger shop with four other employees working under her. She took great advantage of the loans provided by KMBL where she not only laid the foundations of her family’s income but was also able to scale up her business to create job opportunities for four other families in her vicinity. She is now working for a wider vision of adding more product lines in her existing business setup where she has recently introduced embroidered clothes by using her sewing and embroidery skills.

Azra Bibi is one example out of many who has built herself out of nothing with the support of KMBL’s microloans. Khushhali Microfinance Bank is in constant effort to provide easy access to working capital to striving micro-entrepreneurs of Pakistan. Azra Bibi depicts the very vision that KMBL is constantly striving for.