We meet Hamida shortly after she attended the Inner Power program, along with six other women from Huizen a town in the middle of The Netherlands. Hamida tells how the Taliban forbade her to teach at university. To keep working, she and her sisters and her mother started a home school using the Quran as a cover to teach women and girls math, language, English and also about the Quran to prevent girls from remaining illiterate. They exchanged the school for an orphanage for girls and women living off the streets who earned "bad" money by begging. They taught them a trade so they could start earning 'good' money.
When the situation became hopeless, Hamdia fled from Afghanistan to the Netherlands in 2010. She now speaks the Dutch language beautifully and has a job. And yet she misses something. Time for herself, being alone regularly and developing herself, preferably together with other women. That’s when she got to know Buzz Women through a friend from her neighborhood.
"I am very curious when there is training focused on women. I always value support for women, just like we did ourselves back in Afghanistan. Beforehand, I didn't know anyone but that friend and so on the first day I was a bit hesitant. Through the conversations with the other women, I noticed that everyone has gone through something at some point in her life. I thought I was the only one, but suddenly I realized I wasn’t! The training and conversations gave me confidence, in the other women and more and more in myself too. I dared to ask more questions and I learned to take care of things in my life that are important, such as dealing with my own salary and the costs I have for my family and for myself.
They may seem like small things but for me they were very big changes. By listening instead of just hearing what someone else says I figured out that it is better to be kind to myself and to each other. From now on I will never go backwards again, only forwards!"
Hamida currently continues the learnings from The Inner Power training with the other women from her training group in their Beehive. Every two weeks they come together in a community building in Huizen. To connect, share and learn together. It has been a magical journey, she adds.
