HAZOOR Khan is a resident of Mitiari, Sindh. He was given the best micro entrepreneur award for 2008 by the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund and Citigroup as he got rid of poverty on microfinance.
A function was organised at a local hotel here on Monday to honour Hazoor and Kubra from Lahore for their outstanding use of micro loans that improved the quality of life of their families.
Narrating his success story, Hazoor Khan said that he was running a bicycle tyre repairing shop in a village and his income was not enough to properly feed his family. He said he got Rs8,000 micro loan from an non governmental organisation on June 10, 2007, adding that he bought two bicycles and other repairing material with the amount. He said he started providing bicycles on rent to the villagers. The earning from the rent and his business was enough to enable him to pay back his loan, adding that the loan instalment was Rs860 but since he earned enough he returned an amount of Rs1,000 per month.
He said he returned the entire loan in 10 months and the NGO granted him another loan of Rs14,000 immediately. He said he bought four more bicycles and repair material.
He said he started earning enough after which he engaged non-school going children of his village in his shop and sponsored their education in the school.
Hazoor said one day, he was informed by the NGO that he had been declared the best micro entrepreneur of 2008 and was invited to receive the award in Islamabad. He said the award carried a cash price of Rs130,000. He said that he donated Rs10,000 immediately to help a family in the marriage of their daughter. With the remaining amount, he said he bought two used motorcycles that he started giving on rent. He said Rs20,000 were used on the repair of roof of his house and construction of a bathroom. He said he also bought a buffalo for Rs40,000 that provided milk for the family and the spare milk was sold in the market. The buffalo, he added, gave birth to a calf as well so he had now two buffaloes. Hazoor said two years back he earned less Rs50 per day but now he was earning Rs200 daily from the rent on motorcycles, Rs200 daily from the shop and Rs100 daily by selling milk. He said his family was living comfortably and he intended to help the poor of his village from his income.
PPAF CEO Kamal Hayat said the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, through its 75 partner organisations, had distributed micro loans worth $553 millions.
He said it had funded infrastructure projects in 45,000 villages, provided skill training to 332,000 individuals, 40 per cent of whom were women. Besides, the PPAF provided housing grants to 120,000 individuals, he added.
Source: The News
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