Two widowed mothers in Kashmir, scarred by loss and hardship, found hope in the unlikeliest of places, a classroom and a cowshed. With steady support from a local charity, they began rebuilding their lives, raising daughters who now chase dreams once thought unreachable, and reclaiming dignity one step at a time, Shazia Yousuf reports
The winter of 2016 stretched endlessly for Mushtaq Ahmad Lone and his wife, Kounsar Bano. With three young daughters to shield from the bitter cold, the couple longed to move into their newly built one-room house in the picturesque village of Kathawhallan, Shopian. But the fresh structure was damp throughout. They wiped the walls and floor repeatedly, only to find frost had returned by morning.
“We were tired of wiping. Water was oozing from the floor, walls, everywhere,” Kounsar recalled. “My husband said only heat can dry this up.”
Desperate, Mushtaq brought a cola-fed bukhari to warm the room and speed the drying. As Kounsar curled up in a corner with the girls, he remained by the heater, determined to oversee the process. By morning, the dampness had vanished, but so had Mushtaq. The warm room held his lifeless body. He had suffocated in his sleep. Kounsar and the children were found unconscious and later revived in a nearby hospital.
Shattered Dreams
In a single night, Kounsar’s life was undone. One day, she had dreams; the next, she faced survival. With three daughters in her lap, she was overwhelmed, uncertain of the road ahead. Without the generosity of neighbours and relatives, she believed they would not have made it through. “I had no time to mourn. My younger daughter was 28 days old. All I could think was how to feed them,” she said.
She took up odd jobs to provide for her daughters. As some stability returned, the ambition of offering them a proper education stayed beyond reach. When Irtiza, Irtiqa and Arooba were old enough, she enrolled them at Pine Land School in Keller, but the monthly costs soon became unbearable. On the verge of giving up, she received help from CHINAR International, a social development organisation, which admitted her daughters into its Child Development Programme.
A Lifeline
The support changed everything. The organisation covered their school tuition and expenses, and provided essentials, clothing, uniforms, study materials, stationery, and quarterly nutrition and hygiene kits.
To further build their academic foundation, the girls were enrolled in the organisation’s Community Learning Centre (CLC) in Mujapathri. There, they encountered interactive education, especially through the organisation’s Digital Learning Programme. For the first time, they enjoyed watching educational videos on a computer.
A New Beginning
At the CLC, the three sisters found a space where they could grow and remain motivated. The care and attention they received soon began to show in their academic performance. All three secured over 95 per cent in their annual examinations, a moment of deep pride for their mother. Kounsar said it gave her much-needed relief to see them thriving.
While the support eased the burden of her daughters’ education, a void remained. She still yearned for dignity and financial independence. She reached out to the organisation again. A livelihood assessment revealed her prior experience with cow rearing. In June 2024, her journey towards self-reliance began when she was provided a cow unit comprising a cow and a calf.
Kounsar devoted herself to the task, selling milk to generate income. Within three months, she began repaying the support in monthly instalments of Rs 1500. Determined to reclaim her dignity and independence, she worked tirelessly. She remembered the moment she paid her first instalment as transformative. “I felt like I was reborn,” she said.
Battle for Survival
As a child, Fehmeeda Begum was told her physical disability would stand in the way of marriage. When she married Abdul Rashid Wani of Heerpora, Shopian, who had a similar disability, she believed her life had changed for the better. The couple had four children and lived contentedly until one day, Rashid died suddenly. His loss left her shaken. Already physically challenged, she found herself unable to imagine raising four children alone.
“His sudden death made me even more vulnerable. I did not know how to raise my children amid the chaos and helplessness,” Begum recalled.
In 2022, CHINAR intervened. Her children, Madiha, 11, and Muneeb, 14, were enrolled under full support in the CDP. Still, Fehmeeda struggled to place faith in the future and remained detached from their education.
That changed when Madiha scored 99 per cent in her annual examination. Fehmeeda’s confidence grew, and she resolved to secure the best future she could for her children.
But her worries deepened for her eldest daughter, Mehnaz, who was still grieving her father. Her studies had suffered; she had recently failed her eleventh examination and was sinking into melancholy.
From Despair to Distinction
In 2023, CHINAR stepped in, enrolled Mehnaz in its Higher Education Sponsorship Programme (HESP). Alongside financial aid, she received regular counselling, monitoring, and motivation. She reappeared in her eleventh-grade examination and passed with distinction. The following year, she repeated the feat in her twelfth year. Now a Science stream student at Government Degree College, Shopian, Mehnaz studies with a clear goal: to lift her family out of poverty.
Fehmeeda, though grateful to see her children in safe hands, remained burdened by the reality that she still relied on menial jobs and occasional support from friends and relatives. Determined to achieve financial stability, she applied for a cow unit. After an assessment confirmed her prior experience in rearing livestock, she was provided with a cow and calf in September 2024.
Stability Returns
Fehmeeda’s dedication yielded quick results. The cow began producing eight to nine litres of milk daily. She sold seven litres, earning between Rs 7000 and Rs 8000 each month. This income allowed her to manage household expenses without seeking external help.
The timely intervention, she said, had helped her stand again. A disabled widow with limited means, she now felt renewed hope. She planned to expand her work further through continued effort and persistence.
(Author works for Chinar International.)
