Subhashini, a DSF alumna completed her MTech in Computer Science and is working for Intel. Hailing from a humble family, her father – a milk vendor had great expectations from his daughter. DSF supported her journey from school to her dream career through financial scholarship, academic mentoring and life skills development. She remembers her days at the DSF centre as fun, learning and comradeship. She volunteers in her free time at DSF Centre.

When Ihdina Anjum walked into DSF for the first time 16 years ago, a lanky teenage girl, barely audible and extremely hesitant to hold eye contact, her innate talent was far from visible. But she was always drawn towards creative art and credits her mother being her first teacher and inspiration to start embroidery and stitching, ‘My father used to work at a butcher shop but he would hardly give his income to the family, so my mother used to stitch dresses for us and also for others to earn a little money’. Given the family conditions, her brother dropped out of school and started working in the local fish market. Her elder sister, also a student of DSF completed her graduation and took up employment as an Accounts assistant. But Ihdina ‘s heart lay elsewhere.

After she completed her graduation, there was family pressure to take up employment in some office or school. “ I was not at all interested in academics or a conventional job, I just wanted to stitch and create new things. I used to visit DSF often and speak to my teachers. and they decided to create this platform -Aarohi- for me’, she shares with a bright gleam in her eyes, “I was just like any other average child with regular aspirations, but through this programme I‘m able to dream big and I‘m so much more confident today’, she concludes with conviction.

To know more about Aarohi click here