Milestones With OTF – Ayesha Tariq
Our scholar, an Internationally Certified Level II Chef, Ayesha Tariq, who cooked her way towards success while navigating a balance between her personal and professional life. Listen to her talking about her journey with OTF and the MasterClass Pakistan Hospitality Business School program.
Milestones With OTF – Sawera Raees
Our scholar Sawera Raees, the first female engineering student in her family who is on a mission to bring about a change by breaking gender stereotypes for all women. Hear her out sharing her inspiring journey with OTF.
Milestones With OTF – Ghulam Muhammad Palli
I am from Umerkot and I’m working on building rockets as a final year student studying Mechanical Engineering from NUST PNEC, Karachi. I chose engineering because this is a creative profession and I am a creative person.
Innovating new designs and new mechanisms is something which I aim to achieve. As for rockets, from childhood I’ve been watching space movies and they’ve always inspired me. I am very fond of astronauts, although, now I do not really want to be an astronaut because they go into space to work, but I want to work from my land, from Pakistan. I want to work on the space industry for Pakistan and for the youth in Pakistan to pursue rocketry in Pakistan.
I found it very challenging to fund my studies, I belong to a family with very low financial income. However, there are good and supportive people present like the OTF Family. I pay my fees through a scholarship and I am living in a hostel, OTF sponsors my hostel dues and all my living expenses. I contacted OTF through my faculty members in June 2022 and OTF is like a second family to me because they support me like family and no other organization does that. Not only do they support me in hostel dues but they have also supported me in every scenario. Two months ago I was working on a drone and we were participating(in a drone building competition) in Teknofest(Turkey), I did not have the finances for a visa or ticket and OTF supported me by sponsoring my visa and ticket for Teknofest, that’s why we were able to represent Pakistan at Teknofest in Turkey, solely because of Orange Tree Foundation. In the future I also want to repay them for what they invested in me. They are like a family. Whenever I face any issues, I contact them and they support me. They sponsored my travel for Teknofest without much paperwork or hassle. They sponsored me instantly. Normally such processes take a long time for approval. This is why I say they are like family to me.
I was representing Pakistan at Teknofest where we were placed 18th out of 93 international teams. Another big achievement for me is winning two awards, at a competition held annually in the UK. We participated virtually in 2021 and we placed 2nd amongst 37 international teams from around the world.
Nothing is impossible, however there is difficulty in trying to achieve such a difficult task but believe in God, everything will become very easy. Just start work and start doing something. If you fall, rise again. As God promises to help those to strive. If you don’t strive, you will not achieve anything. But when you do achieve something which is difficult, you will be extremely satisfied.
Milestones With OTF – Raheela
I started my journey with OTF in 2015 when my youngest daughter became an OTF scholar. Eventually, both of my daughters were awarded scholarships by OTF and now, Alhamdulillah both of my daughters study in some of the best schools in Karachi. Along with the scholarships, we were also provided with medical facilities by OTF and because of this, I was able to have a second operation regarding my brain tumor, as I had suffered from a brain tumor and had already had surgery for it prior to this.
As a single mother who was raising her two daughters on her own at the time, OTF providing medical facilities of this stature helped me out a lot, especially post operation where they provided me with my medicines and paid for the expenses of my operation. The OTF medical department helps me out a lot in regard to this.
After that, I developed a Thyroid problem and it was at a bad phase when I was suggested to get it checked out. I was then treated by the best doctor in Karachi with the help of OTF and they gave me full support. I have a relationship with OTF as though they are my family. Whenever I have needed them, someone from OTF has always been by my side.