“I was 15 years old when my father died and my mother took me out of school and made me the head of the household.

In this patriarchal society, widows have no status, respect, or any rights. Suddenly my mother became an outcaste from her friends and disrespected in her community. However, she and my grandmother were determined to keep the household together.

I got engaged at the age of 15 and married when I was 20 years old, since then I began to look at the plight of women and children in the local community. I began to realise that many of them did not have the resources to help their situation, so I felt I really wanted to do something to help them.

I persuaded the maid we had, to bring her two girl children to our house and I would start to teach them to read and write. The next day our maid brought 18 girls with her.

Six months later, Sambhali Trust was born with the help of my family and friends; a non-profit charitable organization to help the Empowerment of Women and the most vulnerable of the society.”