Started with nothing, now he leads 1,480
Bhoora Lal’s life has been a steep uphill battle, but he never let adversity break him. Today, he runs his own aid organization with 1,480 members. Together, they build toilets, install water pumps, and teach widows how to sew. They also help slow down climate change in temperatures reaching up to fifty degrees Celsius.
Humble and kind, Bhoora Lal greets us at the youth center where it all began, in Sanghar, Sindh in Pakistan. There’s little to suggest that this quiet man has helped change almost 1500 lives. But he has.
Let’s rewind a bit, to a younger version of Bhoora. He wanted to study, get a good job, marry, have children, and build a bright future. Then his father died suddenly. As the only son, he now had to support his mother and sisters.
“I was 18 years old, and everything turned upside down,” he says, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye.
It’s still painful to think about his father’s sudden death and the heavy responsibility that was suddenly placed on his shoulders.
“I couldn’t continue my life the way I wanted. I had to go out and find work.” He ended up doing odd jobs in agriculture and shops.
Four years ago, he heard about a project called Power to the Youth, initiated by Norwegian Church Aid’s partner CSSP with support from the European Union. The program offered training in leadership, climate action, and gender equality. As a result, more than 7,000 young people have been given a second chance, a job and a future, across over five districts, in a total of fifty youth groups in Pakistan.
“I didn’t know what I was getting into, but I was curious. I went to a meeting, and it became a turning point for me. I learned how to earn a stable income and how to install solar panels. We also learned about agriculture, how to manage the money we earned, and basically how to get a job and an income.”
When Bhoora talks about this turning point, he explains what life was like before.
“I was scared, stressed, and deeply worried about how my family would survive after my father died. I didn’t know how to take control of my life. We had nothing, and I couldn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. I had nowhere to go.”
The course in Sanghar, Sindh lit a spark on him.
“Something changed in me. I rose up, in a way, and quickly realized that I wanted others to have the same opportunity. I was determined that no one in a similar situation should suffer the way I did.
That was the beginning of his own aid organization, which grew out of the Power to the Youth project, Youth Dream Alliance (YDA). He personally traveled from village to village to recruit unemployed and vulnerable youth for training, just like he had received.
After the training, the youth were organized into groups that represent the voice of young people in their communities and engage in activism for local development, governance issues, and human rights.
Bhoora took it a step further. His deep commitment to youth and local communities has now brought over 1,200 members into his organization, mostly highly vulnerable young people.
“We come from poor backgrounds, and it’s hard for us to get the same opportunities as others. That’s why it’s so important to me that they have access to something like this.”
Now the organization has grown significantly. They’ve built toilets, planted 14,000 trees, taught women and widows how to sew, and installed water pumps. Everyone who earns an income after the training contributes 100 Pakistani rupees each month. The money goes directly toward further developing the villages.
Tree planting has been especially important, as temperatures in Sindh can reach up to 50 degrees Celsius.
“In addition to planting trees, we have greenhouses with seedlings and plants that we sell.”
Sanghar was also hit hard by the major floods in 2022. In addition to brutal climate changes, poverty is widespread in these areas. The journey Bhoora has taken, alongside 7,000 others, has been long, but it has changed countless lives.
“No one would even drink the tea I served, let alone sit with me. Now I have confidence that I never thought it was possible. I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved together. The villages around here are thriving, and we’re not stopping. We have many plans and ideas that we’re going to bring to life,” he smiles.
