In the narrow, winding veins of Haji Ghulam Zakarya Goth, a settlement defined by its “tenacious spirit of adaptation” amidst systemic neglect, lives a woman who embodies the very definition of urban resilience. She is a mother of three, navigating a life where the infrastructure has failed, but her will has not.
Her daily reality is a cramped 10-square-yard plot in Gadap Town, a space shared with nine family members in a traditional joint system. Within these walls, the “socio-economic fabric is distinctly gendered”. While her husband remains jobless—a choice that places the full weight of household sustenance on her shoulders—she must also navigate the cold indifference of in-laws who offer little sympathy for her plight.
Survival in the Goth is a seasonal battle. During the blistering Karachi summers, she endures up to 12 hours of load shedding, a direct result of the “state failure” that forces residents to rely on precarious, informal power connections. When winter arrives, the crisis shifts from light to heat. With Sui Gas critically absent, she joins the ranks of women enduring the “health hazards of wood fuels,” spending her mornings stooped over a smoky fire that stings the eyes and clouds the lungs, just to ensure her children are fed.
Despite the “grim shadow” of addiction and vulnerability that haunts the settlement, she finds her sanctuary at the Amna Shamima Foundation (ASF). Here, she is more than a victim of circumstance; she is a worker and a student. ASF’s core philosophy of “intergenerational knowledge exchange” has given her a platform to turn her struggle into a strategy. Whether she is mastering “Fabric Art” to bolster the family income or participating in “English Language Workshops,” she works with a ferocious intensity.
Her motivation is simple yet profound: her children. She views literacy and skill development as the “confidence catalyst” that will break the cycle of poverty. “My aim is to give them the best education,” she says, her voice steady even when her eyes well with the “periods of tears” that come from exhaustion. “They should not have to face what I have faced.”
In a community where women “largely bolster household incomes through domestic labor,” she is a standout—a woman carving out a life amidst “infrastructural voids”. She moves through the Goth with a smile that defies her surroundings, laughing with neighbors even as she carries the burden of a nine-person household on her back. She is the silent architect of her children’s future, proving that even in the most “resource-constrained settlements,” a mother’s ambition is the most powerful resource of all.