“Just a few days ago, as I was about to begin my Aagahi session, one of the women in my class pulled me down in excitement. She had brought a newspaper. I sat with her quiet and motionless with my eyes on her while she tried to read the paper. She labored to break the words into sounds putting them together to read slowly. It is always amazing when people benefit from something that you do.”

Fatima Sammo, a TCF graduate of the 2012 batch, is now a teacher at the same school she attended as a child. Born into a family humble means, she always found her father supportive of her interest in education. Fatima believes that TCF has opened doors of opportunities to the children of her village. Along with teaching during the morning at her TCF Primary School, she also conducts adult literacy classes at her home as part of ‘Aagahi’ – TCF’s adult literacy program for women.

As an Aagahi teacher, Fatima teaches basic Mathematics and Urdu reading and writing to her students. She believes that even these basic functional literacy skills have an enormous impact on the women she teaches. From being able to read bus numbers at a busy bus stop, to calculating the change they are owed at the end of a shopping transaction, to writing a letter to their loved ones, the gift of literacy dramatically transforms the lives of these women.