A 100 Euros to change a life...

Islamabad, Greater India, 05/10/2021
6 a.m.

In the poorer quarters of Islamabad rises the sun. A dizzy day is about to come. A lot of cycles and people are on the streets. They make noise, The noise of a living city.

Laxmi just woke up. She is going through her morning routine. But today is a special day. It is a kind anniversary. It is been 10 years since those women picked her up on the streets and showed her how to read and write. They also told her what she is allowed to do, what she can achieve. They believed in her.

On that day ten years ago, she was about to go to work. To beg, maybe sell something. At she first she wanted to chase them away - she had to get some money after all, if she did not want to stay hungry the day.
Finally they convinved her to go with them. They told her that she will be 'compensated ' for her time she spents with.

 'Compensated' -  she even did not know what this meant precisely. 'Precisely' - another word she did not know.
Then her education began and she got something to eat. At the beginning, the meals were more important than the things the women told her, wanted to teach her. But after a while things started to make sense. Laxmi recognized patterns. These signs had a meaning and she had a chance to understand. She grasped it.
A wh*** new world around her was to be discovered, all those signs, books, all written things  - there was so much to see, to read and to write about.

Laxmi smiled while hanging on those thoughts.

She knew nothing from the rest of the world. Her world ended at the border of her slum. Everything else was unknown territory. Her first major victory could Laxmi celebrate on 1st of June 2014, when the state of Pakistan ceased its existence and became one with the former enemy India.

She was the first in her quarter to spread the news, because she had beome the local newspaper journalist. She could also tell the story how this could happen. The indian and the pakistani people both grew tired from this everlasting conflict aboout the cashmere regon  The importance of islam and hinduism declined.
Crucial for this event to take place was the fact Paksitan had no real parliament, dictator or political leader. The people were longing for some kind of leadership. So this strange alliance was forged.

Leadership - something she was also longing for in the past. She was raised in the tradition that men are always right. Whatever they say is true, and orders have to be followed strictly.  It was normal that women were forced into submission. No questions were allowed. All punishments were just. And in cases when this image of men did not work properly, men's reign was justified either by traditon or diviine order - depending on who she was asking, her mother or grandmother.

What a waste of time.

Right know she wished that the women found her earlier. If she had been found as a child, what would her life have become? In moments like these she takes a look outside. Her living conditions have improved. The people here have running water and electricity 24 hours a day. The roofs are water resistant, and streets are recognizeable as streets. And almost each household has a toilet on its own.

10 years ago, it was different. Nothing of that existed in her quarter. She did not move away because she did not want to leave home. It was hard for her, nevertheless, because she changed faster than her environment. Everybody knew her as the beggar who sold almost everything occasionally. It took a while until her people started taking her seriously. Her community had to accept that she had an opinion on her own. She became a local leader. A mover. A shaker.

After finishing her education she started to take action, to ask questions, to claim rights, to take things in her own hands Where did her path lead to? Today she has her own newspaper and six other women are working for her.
It is nothing divine about that. It is the result from hr work. Work she did with her head , her hands and her heart.
For her 10th anniversary she did some research on how it was possible that these things could happen.  She found out that just before the women tokk her of the streets a few guys from Europe, from Germany spent 100 Euros for the cause of the organization the women she met were working for.

100 Euros changed her life. She did not know who these people were and if they still exist. But she wished she could return the favour one day.