TRUE Grit
(5)
Resurgence
Mascot
Separation from her mother at four motivated Sufaira Nazir to become a
mascot
for change in a girls’ orphanage on the outskirts of Srinagar. At 17, she
has qualified in a series of examinations for the Global Leadership
Education and Foundation scholarship that will enable her to study in a
school in the US and understand the socio-cultural background of her
counterparts there.
When Nazir’s father died in a remote village in
J&K, her mother felt she could not take care of her daughter and put
her in an orphanage. Living a disciplined life with other girls helped.
Zahoor A Tak, chairman of the trust that runs the orphange — or Papaji as
she called him — was also a big support for Nazir.
The school, where the girls went to, has a good
track record. Tak said when they received the application forms for the
scholarship, Nazir was the best candidate. And when Papaji told her that
she has to make it happen, “it invoked a kind of energy in me that I should
do it for the sake of the institution and thank God I did it.” Initially,
she said, it seemed a Himalayan task but once things became clear,
everything became easy.
—
Masood Hussain ETM130901
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