PESHAWAR: Born to a labourer in Abdara village on the outskirts of Peshawar, Somaya Farhat Khan had a dream to do something for poor children so that they could also live a normal life like others belonging to well off families.

Two years ago, she dared to share her dream with her father, who unexpectedly in a typical conservative Pakhtun society allowed her to go ahead. She started her journey with a dream to bring smiles on the slump faces of children, who spend their life on the streets with no one to satisfy their urge to play and to go to school.Although she doesn`t have any formal or informal training yet she is equipped with her strength to serve the deprived children. Her three-dimensional dream of providing education, healthcare and skills to her poor village families was no more than an inspiration for other teenage girls.

`When I was a child, I used to dream how one day I will be able to do something for the deprived children, especially girls of my village. After doing my10th grade, I shared my dream with my father and I was given permission of which I was not quite sure. The first thing, I did was to open a Facebook account in my father`s name and launched my dream goals. It was an instant success,` recalled Ms Khan.

At the beginning, she faced hardships but slowly and gradually she was getting to catch up with her dream targets. Nazeer Ahmad Baig, a volunteer in Islamabad, invited her to attend an event there and share her dream in person with the participants.Ms Khan said that her f ather took her to Islamabad where she met some good people at the event and her host, a God fearing volunteer, pledged her to extend financial support for renting a place in Peshawar where she would launch school for village children.

She returned with a renewed spirit. She rented a building and ran a door-to-door campaign, asking parents to send out their children to her school. She was able to attract some other volunteers too to contribute to her cause and children from her village started pouring in for admission and even a few from a nearby staterun school came up recently for admission.

Akhtar Ali was one such child, who told this scribe that teachers at the government school would beat children but Ms Khan was very kind to them. Till 4th grade, around 200 children read at her makeshift school. Her next target was to impart some technical training to her village women.

Once again Ms Khan went house-to-house and convinced women to learn skills that could earn them some money.

She said that she continued contacting philanthropists, who helped her off and on.

She said that she just wanted to see deprived children too could play, celebrate Eid festival and go to schools like other children.

`We impart training on computer skills, different designing on clothes and sewing machines to about 40 women and also give them some tips to run a household successfully and raise children with good manners. Besides, I run a small health centre too. I am in contact with some volunteer doctors on Skype to provide services to our patients free of cost, said Ms Khan.

She said that her appeal through media to people, who could afford, was only support and encouragement. `I have recently finished my intermediate and I want to do masters in sociology or conflict studies in future. I want my dream further flourished,` said Ms Khan.