Shamshad is 53, a widow who has spent years raising her daughter, now 28, mostly on her own. Money was never something she could count on, on good months zakat meant there were rations in the house, on harder ones there wasn’t much of a safety net at all. She had an idea to sell candies and snacks for kids from her own home, something simple and manageable on her own terms, but the money to actually stock a few shelves was the one thing she couldn’t put together herself. So the idea stayed just that, an idea, waiting for the right push.

Shamshad’s inability to sign her name, along with the fact that she was over 60 years old, made even simple processes at AAF more difficult. She had to complete additional paperwork and make several trips to the office - far more than most people would normally need to. AAF therefore supported her through a direct cash transfer of ₹10,000, ensuring she received the assistance she needed in a way that worked for her.

That money became her way in. Shamshad used it to buy stock and open her little shop from home, selling candies and snacks right at her doorstep, and today it’s running well. For the first time in a long while, she’s earning her own money, and she pays her electricity and society maintenance bills herself. Small things, maybe, but for her they mean something much bigger, that she can finally stand on her own two feet.