International Day of Disabled Persons: Tailoring a future silently

The determined, hardworking tailors who have overcome their impairments make Pleasures a shop far from the ordinary.

Located on the 24th Commercial Street, Defence Housing Authority (DHA) is an ordinary shop with seemingly ordinary people. The shop appears like any other tailoring shop, stitched clothes hanging in a line, a few sewing machines, some piles of clothes and a few tailors. However, what make this shop far from ordinary is its people. A bunch of determined, skilled and hardworking men who can neither hear nor speak but have overcome their impairment and are making most of their skill in order to make a better future for themselves and their children.

The shop named Pleasures is run and managed by four tailors who do made-to-order tailoring as well as design and prepare readymade apparel that they sell on stalls at various functions in schools, malls, companies and fairs. A miraculous and inspirational venture Pleasures, is initiated by the School of Leadership Foundation (SoLF) under its subsidiary branch Extra-Corp that works for the empowerment of the mentally and physically challenged in Pakistan. A brainchild of Shireen Naqvi, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), SoLF, the organisation focuses on making this particular segment of the youth financially and socially self-reliant, moulding them into entrepreneurs by helping them set up their own business.

Naqvi conceived the idea way back in 1988 when she was working with a foreign company, which was developing a tool that could be attached to computers through which people with various disabilities could run automated machines and make an array of items. Inspired by the idea, Naqvi believes in helping these people not financially but by leading them on to a path through which they can become independent.

“At the moment the tailors are on a salary as the shop hasn’t started yielding profit so far but the day it does it will be theirs,” says Naqvi. “There are some clients that are so contented with their work and the idea behind the shop that they even come to the shop from as far as Gulshan-e-Iqbal to get their clothes stitched,” she adds.

Tasneem Naqvi a client of the shop, says that the tailors working here are highly talented and diligent. “What they lack in their abilities they make up for it with their intelligence. I have been referring my friends to this shop and even they were equally inspired to see the marvellous work done here,” she adds.

Brothers Mohammad Javaid and Mohammad Rahim are two of the tailors working at the shop. Their mother Hameeda Sadruddin says that her children lost their ability to hear or speak owing to a bombing that took place in her vicinity during the war of 1971 in Hyderabad. For many years Sadruddin remained dismayed and concerned for her children’s future but gradually combined with her efforts and that of the school’s, the children started coping and managing with their lives considerably well. At this point in their lives when both Javaid and Rahim are self-reliant and fend for their families themselves she says, “I feel very proud to see their efforts going into a shop that will be theirs one day. They have always taken care of me and have never been a burden on me and now are paving a better future for their children,” says the mother filled with pride.

With glistening eyes and a vibrant smile, Javaid, the master tailor of the shop, says that the reason why he loves working at Pleasures is that he is his own boss and enjoys his independence. Having studied till grade seven, Javaid has been working since 1983. Despite Pleasures being distant from his house as compared to the previous places he worked at, Javaid prefers working here. For him working at other places meant that he was working under and for someone else but here every bit of effort he puts in takes him a step ahead to owning his own business. Moreover, doing everything by himself and managing the shop has not only provided him a stable occupation where he is contented but has also raised his level of confidence. On December 3 the world celebrated The International Day of Disabled Persons by raising awareness of disability issues, promoting the effective participation of disabled persons in the society and focusing on better ways of mainstreaming them. In this regard, projects of SoLF such as Pleasures is a good example of efforts that build on the abilities of these people in making them active participants of the society and proving how a little attention can help these people unearth their true potential and go a long way. If such endeavours were to continue, one day even our society will be able to create heroes like Einstein, Hawking, Edison, Milton and Beethoven — people who suffered from some sort of disability yet had the strength to overcome it and change the face of the earth.

Pleasures is located on 17 C, 24th Commercial Street, Phase 2 Extension DHA.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2010.