Against All Odds – Allah Rakhi from Pehli Kiran School 5

Allahrakhi, a former PKS student, and now a PKS teacher, personifies the sheer strength of self-belief which she carries around with a smile on her face.

Allahrakhi has weathered a lot of storms with resilience, dealing with a broken engagement and then her father’s accident. The latter left the family in a very difficult situation, both emotionally and financially. Since then, Allahrakhi has helped her mother shoulder the burden of her four-member family by working as a full-time teacher at PKS and a seamstress in the evening; all while being a second-year student herself.

Her father is a woodworker and her mother works as a housemaid near their place. They aspired to educate their children despite being uneducated themselves, so they enrolled Allahrakhi and her younger brother in PKS-5.  They pinned all their hopes on Allah Rakhi since her brother had a speech impediment and a learning disability. She vividly remembers being a dedicated student and sharing her parents’ passion for it.

Now a grade 1 teacher at PK-5 and newly engaged, Allahrakhi has turned her life around. Though they are still struggling financially, her mother and she manage the rent and bills, while her brother contributes towards the daily rations. The brother had to discontinue his education after grade 5 because of his learning disability. Allahrakhi, however, is continuing her education as a private student with the Federal Board of Education. PKS funds 50% of her educational expenses (a teachers’ fund run by PKS) while her mother’s employer funds the rest.

Strong-willed and determined Allahrakhi wants to be there for her family as they navigate through this period of hardship and struggle.

‘My dream is to build a small house for my parents and help them move out of this one-room place, and see my brother settle down. As for myself, I want to enroll in a computer class and be able to do much more than just teach, but more than anything, I want to give a good life to my parents,’ she says.