Nazma grew up in a large Muslim family that was filled with poverty, neglect, and food insecurity. She longed to play with other children, but out of necessity was forced to work as a child with her family, making goods for a local factory in order to put food on the table. Nazma felt lonely, suffocated, and completely helpless, and she thought marriage would be her ticket to happiness.

When she married at 15, she found out she was the second wife, and that she had no standing within the family. Her husband left her with his parents and first wife to go work in Delhi. Nazma was emotionally and physically abused, and she was forced to do all the household work and field work and to sleep out on the veranda in all weather.

When she had a baby, her in-laws often pressed her to kill herself along with her daughter. Her husband finally brought the family to Delhi when Nazma was pregnant with their third daughter. But during a prenatal checkup in her fourth pregnancy, Nazma was diagnosed with HIV. She was completely broken. Her husband tested positive too, but thankfully their children all tested HIV negative.

Her husband barely supported the family financially. It broke Nazma’s heart that her kids’ childhood was filled with making factory goods just as her childhood had been. She hated living in the same cycle of poverty.

Then the staff at a government hospital saw that Nazma needed medical care and more. They sent her to enroll in the Shalom Project. Nazma says, “After I met the Shalom team, for the first time in my life I felt valued, loved, and cared for. My eldest daughter, Nafisa, will soon be enrolled in Shalom and the Invisible Girl Project, which will give her a fighting chance at making her dreams of becoming a nurse a reality. This has given me a glimmer of hope that was missing in my life. I am confident that the cycle of poverty and oppression will soon be broken in my family, and for this I am truly grateful to the Shalom team.” The Shalom team looks forward to walking alongside Nazma and investing in her life and the lives of her children in the ways that are most helpful to them.