Every child is a universe of potential. We know this, but life often forces us to forget. This is the story of one girl who refused to let her light go out, a story that will remind you of the fierce, fragile, and incredible resilience of a child’s heart.
Her name is Hijab. At 13, she carries dreams as vibrant as the drawings that once filled her kindergarten days. Her sketches were prophecies of joy: her family, united and smiling, with her father always at the centre. He was her anchor, her protector, the keeper of her biggest dream: to join a cadet college and one day become a CSS officer, a voice of peace for her community.
Then, the world shattered.
Conflict tore through her village, replacing the music of everyday life, children’s laughter, neighbours’ chatter, birdsong, with a terrifying silence of fear. In the chaos, Hijab lost everything. Her cherished home vanished. And then, the unthinkable: her beloved father was gone.
Overnight, her childhood ended. She became a shadow, moving from place to place with her mother and eight sisters, each night an unanswered question: Where will we sleep? Where are we safe? The colourful future she had drawn for herself faded to grey. The dream of cadet college felt like a story about someone else, a cruel echo from a life she could no longer remember.
“I still draw my family together,” she confesses, her voice a soft echo of that loss. “I put my dad in the picture, even though he’s not here. I draw the happy times… before the world broke.”
But within Hijab, a tiny, stubborn ember of hope still glowed.
That ember found its oxygen when Hijab and her family found the Sadaat Foundation. Here, she found more than shelter; she found a family that saw her, the brilliant, wounded girl behind the sorrow. They saw not just what she had lost, but everything she could still become.
For six years, through the Foundation’s Alternate Care Programme in Mardan, that ember has been gently nurtured into a flame. Her mother watches through tears of awe as her daughter transforms pain into purpose. Hijab’s dream didn’t die; it grew roots in her hardship. “I want to build a better life for my family,” Hijab says, her resolve solidifying, “and for all the children who have lost their support, just like I did. I want to be the one who resolves conflicts, so no other little girl has to hear the silence I heard.” Today, that wounded little girl stands tall in the uniform of Khushal Khan Cadet College, Nowshera. She is a Lady Cadet, marching forward with a discipline that belies her years. In Class 9, she studies not just for grades, but for a future she is determined to claim. She sees herself in a CSS officer’s uniform, serving her nation, lifting up communities, and weaving peace where there was once only division.
At Sadaat Foundation, she finds colour again, in psychosocial support sessions where her heart heals, in creative activities where her spirit soars, on field trips where she learns the world can still be kind.
Hijab’s journey is a living testament to the power of compassion. It is a story written not by chance, but by your generosity.
You are not merely supporting a child’s education. You are guarding the hope of a future leader. You are honouring the struggle of a girl who has faced the darkest night and chosen to reach for the dawn. With every step she takes, she carries your belief with her.
Let us keep her dream alive. Together, we can be the family that stands behind her, protects her hope, and helps her build the future her father always knew she deserved, a future of peace, justice, and boundless light.
Sadaat Foundation Contact email: info@sadaatfoundation.org Mobile Number. 0334-9009550
We are a family.
