MULTAN, July 30: A widow and her daughters have become class fellows at a government-initiated literacy programme which they have been pursuing to be able to earn income to support the family.

Shamsa Bibi, a resident of Seetal Mari (Multan district), lost her husband Muhammad Akram, a labourer, two years ago when he could not survive heart attack.

Already keeping the wolf away from the door, the family plunged into abject poverty and affording education of the five children, three of them girls, became a dream for the widow.

Eldest Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, 18, had been learning the holy Quran by heart while his sisters Rabia Bibi, 16, and Naureen Bibi, 14, could not even dream of going to school.

Zafar, after the death of his father, joined a mosque as a prayer leader and became the only earning hand of his family reduced to six. It was then that his 35-year-old mother got an opportunity to join a literacy centre established by the National Commission for Human Development Pakistan.

Soon afterwards she also got enrolled two of her daughters for the basic learning programme and three of them successfully completed the three-month course during which they learnt basic mathematics and reading and writing skills.

Extending their studies to the post-literacy programme, they acquired the skill of designing artificial flowers with plastic bottles. Now they are learnt to have started marketing their product, hoping that their dream of living a respectable life may materialise very soon.

Shamsa now thinks of taking Maryam, the youngest daughter, and a three-year-old son to the same literacy centre “the moment they attain the age of 15”.