“Al Balad Village” was just one of the poorest villages and in need of the most basic necessities of life. The daily income average of most households in the village does not exceed 6,000 YER ($10) in 2022, according to local sources.
The wildest dream of many girls who lived in Al Balad village was to obtain a basic education certificate but to no avail because the school in the village was for both boys and girls. Fathers refused to let their daughters go to a co-education environment. As a result, most of the girls in the village were deprived of education. On top of that, diseases spread in most of the village's homes with no hope of being rescued.
The first step is to build self-up.
Many women dream of changing their lives in a personal manner, but Shadia worked to change the life of the entire community.
Shadia, a 55-year-old, lives in several stages of suffering that started with her early marriage, at the age of 12. She was deprived of education in the seventh grade just a few days before she got married. She is the household of her family which consists of five daughters and a son, living in a rural area that lacks work opportunities and basic services.
However, these stages were not only a challenge in her life, but a motive that made her move forward to create a good reputation and name in the hearts of the residents of her village.
The journey of change in Shadia’s life began at the Khadija Development Foundation where she joined sewing and embroidery lessons and got a loan to buy a sewing machine.
 “Being deprived of education, my need to earn money in order to educate my children and provide them with livelihood is what motivates me up to go on and to struggle for my right of study and work”
The first challenge Shadia faced was to make a balance between the immediate needs of her family and the need to run after her education and improvement in work.
Despite her family and community’s refusal to let her study and work, she succeeded in convincing her family of women's capability to study and work while adhering to all community values. Shadia had to go on a long talk, negotiation, giving examples, and discussions to convince her family to let her work. She also asked for support from wiser people in the family to convince those who still see no point in women’s education and work.
“I have tried to highlight to the community the importance of women’s education, work, and participation in life as a tool to protect a family.”
Establishing Association for women
Receiving money from her profession contributed to improving the situation of Shadia’s family, which filled her with determination to transfer her experience to women in rural communities around her who needed economic empowerment. Shadia worked to establish AlZahraa Association.
Al-Zahra Association formed the cornerstone of educational projects, which empowered most women in the area economically by training them on income-generating handicrafts.
“My intention to change the situation of women in the society for the better were all factors that pushed me forward all the time.”
A school for girls
A girls’ school project according to Shadia was a social demand from mothers in the village for their girls to complete their education like boys. Shadia noticed that the high dropout rate for girls from education was due to the parents’ refusal to enroll their daughters in schools with boys. Shadia started to address social figures and community leaders and the Education Office for the need to build a separate school for girls in the area.
Health center in the village
Women in the village were facing a lot of difficulties during pregnancy, childbirth, childcare and the double spending on health services in the city. Shadia decided that her association would have a role in overcoming such difficulties. Thus, the first health center in the sub-district was established as the first project by Shadia.
Shadia contributed to changing the health, educational and economic life of hundreds of families in her community. She pushed the change in health represented by the health center, in education represented by the girls' school, as well as in training and rehabilitation through the Productive Families Center and the Zahra Association. She also provided work opportunities for many women to improve their livelihoods.
Consequently, fathers today push their daughters towards school and their women and children to the health center encourage women to obtain life skills to enhance the economic empowerment.

Initiatives to Empowered Women Economically

Shadia calls for women’s right to work, and she leads initiatives to support the provision of lands for establishing women’s development enterprises. Being a positive example of a decisive, strong and successful woman in the area allowed her to gain the appreciation and trust of people surrounding her for the support of women’s projects.
She worked also to convince local leaders of the importance of women's participation in resolving community issues that contribute to peace and security at the local level.
These activities facilitated by Shadia contributed to resolving and settling social, educational and development conflicts and to establish and strengthen the foundations of peace, security and stability.
“Most of the development projects in our country require a peacebuilding process, and a high skill in conflict resolution because differences and disputes prevail among community members regarding project location, value and scope of intervention. But I carefully studied the objections and refuted them to have an agreement of the different opinions to become a support in the public interest."