Lighting a Spark: Enabling Lifelong Learning for a Brighter Future
As members of the Jamat seek to build new lives in unfamiliar lands, they often face various obstacles to economic growth and financial stability. However, a new program is offering hope and tangible support to those seeking to re-establish themselves in a different place.
Arriving from Hyderabad, India in 2000, Zainab Banatwala lived in many cities in the USA, before finally settling in Houston. She had worked as an accountant in India, but later decided to move to the US and found work in a drycleaning establishment in Dallas. With a teenage daughter, making ends meet was difficult on her basic salary, so her sister encouraged her to inquire about the Jamati Skills Development Initiative (SDI), a part of the Ismaili Council’s Quality of Life (QOL) portfolio. Motivated by the suggestion, she decided to learn more about it and see if it could help her seek better employment.
In March 2022, Zainab enrolled in a four-month course as a pharmacy technician, and soon found work at a pharmacy Micro-fulfillment Center, filling prescriptions to be shipped. Her income has since increased, as has her quality of life, and she is grateful for the opportunity to have upgraded her skills — albeit in a new career — that allows her to work four days a week and spend more time with her daughter, now enrolled as a nursing student.
