At just ten years old, Lubna balances school alongside work to help support her family.
Each day after finishing lessons, she travels to the city to clean people’s homes, sweeping floors, mopping and washing dishes to earn a small income.
“If I only sweep and mop, I get fifty rupees,” she explains. “If I wash dishes as well, I get one hundred.”
For many girls living in rural Sindh, childhood is often shaped by work and household responsibilities rather than education. For Lubna, school has become an important part of her daily life.
Before joining the learning centre, opportunities to study were limited. Today, she attends school regularly and has now been studying for two years.
When asked what she likes most about school, she talks about the books, notebooks and lessons she studies each day.
“I like school work more than working” she says.
For Lubna, the classroom offers a different environment from the responsibilities she carries outside school. Alongside learning, the centre provides a safe and supportive space where she can spend time focusing on her education and future.
Even while continuing to work after school, Lubna remains committed to attending lessons every day.
For girls like Lubna, access to education is helping create possibilities that once felt out of reach. The learning centre is allowing girls who would otherwise spend their entire childhood working to continue learning alongside the realities of daily life and financial hardship.
For Lubna, education represents more than lessons alone. It represents the possibility of a different future.
The Empower Her project was made possible thanks to generous public donations to READ Foundation, matched by funding from the UK government through UK Aid Match. Through safe, inclusive and community-based learning spaces, the project is helping out-of-school girls aged 6–16 access education closer to home.
