Zahida's fight

In the 1990s, Zahida Qureshi was ten years old, lived in Pakistan and lost the use of her legs due to polio. When she needs to move, she asks her brother to put her on a bicycle. Zahida wants to study, but six schools deny her access: her disability, school officials say, risks distracting her classmates from lessons.

The little girl then finds a school to attend, but during the day she is stuck at her desk because she doesn't have a wheelchair. Her life begins to change in college, when her parents manage to raise enough resources to give her her first wheelchair.

Today Zahida's story is well known in her hometown, Multan. In 2007, at just over 25 years old, you founded a company that helps people with disabilities have useful tools to move around. It is a non-profit and is called the Society for Special Persons. You have produced more than 6,000 wheelchairs in 15 years, especially for adults and children who, like Zahida, have had polio. Some of the wheelchairs are made directly by those who will then use them: Society for Special Persons also offers six-month courses that teach recipients to build a wheelchair independently.

For example, Wajid Ali, 27, who recently finished his lessons, says this: "With my new wheelchair I will be able to manage the family's tailoring shop, I am proud to have learned something that can be useful to others."

After spending money on the production of wheelchairs, Zahida wants to make sure that they can actually be used. "When I was in college there were no ramps or elevators, sometimes I had to skip classes because I didn't arrive on time" said the entrepreneur. So in 2011 you launched the Accessible Pakistan campaign to install ramps that allow access to people with disabilities in mosques, public toilets and social places. Zahida's story led her to identify with hundreds of other people with disabilities: her ingenuity did the rest.

Chiara Vitali

NP Agosto-Settembre 2023