'Conversations with Kanwal' touches upon financial struggles

A story of perseverance and hard work, Amber's life is a lesson in single handedly turning your life around

Conversations with Kanwal is already on to its ninth episode, and this time, the episode tells a heartwarming tale of rebuilding a life from scratch.

Amber looks back at the struggles that life threw her way before she could get up on her own two feet and provide a much better life for her family.

Growing up with an abusive father who barely contributed to the family income, Amber had always seen a less than pleasant lifestyle. "My mother used to work three jobs. We used to live in a very small studio apartment, the five of us. We didn't even have the basic furniture and essentials for a house," she recalled.



With a father who barely made enough driving a rickshaw to sustain his family and a mother working overtime to support her kids, Amber had a sense of misplaced responsibility since a very young age - the financial conditions called for it.

"We didn't even know if we would be able to pay the next month's rent. One time our landlord came to our house with her daughter and we were three month's overdue on our rent," she reminisced about a particular instance that broke her.

Despite her mother's assurance that she would arrange something, the landlady wouldn't budge and asked them to evict saying, "If you don't have money, I'll give you enough to buy some poison. Give some to your daughters and yourself and die if you're unable to pay the rent."

"I was literally crying inside that someone could say something like this to us, just because we're not financially sound and our father is not responsible enough," she said, somberly.



Amber then went on to relay the time that was the breaking point for their family - her fathers alcoholism that made him abusive to the point that he would hit their mother. Once, he hit her brother instead and they had to rush him to the hospital, at which point Amber reported him to the police - finally feeling responsible enough to speak up.

"I was the one who called the police and told them that he is an abusive person who hits my mother. How long are we going to stay quiet? We had to raise our voice," said Amber, going on to share how they decided that he will not stay with us, marking the day that Amber knew she had to stand up for the family in  more ways than one.

She then went on to teach students at our house, giving them tuition and managing to make around Rs.9,000- 10,000, which was crucial to sustain their household without a father figure. She then steadily progressed, getting a job at a school to aid her.

She was also interested in nursing but realised that if she were to pursue it full-time she wouldn't be able to contribute at home - a sacrifice she wasn't willing to make, so her nursing dream had to take a back-burner.

One of her cousins then helped her get a job at a call center, which supplemented her monthly income tremendously. She was now earning roughly around Rs.20,000 from the call center. She then decided to work double shifts, along with her school job, barely getting in 4 hours of sleep a day, but making more money.



"While in the office, I would apply for more jobs as well, and managed to get a better offer where I could make double than what I was already earning. So I thought our lifestyle could get even better, and we shifted from a studio apartment to a one-bedroom apartment. For the first time in 15 years, I slept on a bed" Amber said almost tearfully.

She realised that she couldn't grow further here, so she decided to get some help from a cousin in Dubai and through her sheer perseverance and hard work, moved out to Dubai, making a life for herself and finding a life partner in a friend.

Her early life in Dubai was full of challenges as well, but she overcame everything, managing to move her mother and siblings out to Dubai with her as well.

"I am still working as an operations manager (in Dubai). After a lot of hard work I've achieved whatever I wanted to in life... Our close relative who see us can't believe it."

Amber also recalled how a relative said to her mother recently how Amber would wear their hand-me-downs. "Alhamdulillah, I am at a place now where I can support people and this is an achievement for me," said Amber about her journey.

A lesson in perseverance and hard work, Amber's story is a real eye opener to so many people's realities - a lot of people are struggling more than meets the eye.

Watch the video here.

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