Opening Eyes and Hearts with Sabina Khatri – International Women’s Day 2024

In celebration of International Women’s Day, Indus Hospital & Health Network (IHHN) hosted an event themed “Inspiring Inclusion” & Empowerment. This event aimed to honor the achievements of women and shed light on the importance of fostering a culture of inclusion and empowerment.

The distinguished guest speaker, Sabina Khatri, graced the occasion. Ms. Sabina Khatri, Founder & Chairperson of Kiran Foundation, is the recipient of the prestigious civilian award, Sitara-e-Imtiaz (2020) by the Government of Pakistan. Sabina’s commitment to creating positive change, particularly in the realm of inclusion, made her a fitting speaker for the occasion. Her insights promised to inspire and ignite meaningful conversations.

Kiran Foundation is a revolutionary non-profit organization, which started off as a small initiative in 2006 by Sabina Khatri who drew her inspiration from ‘mumta’ meaning maternity, motherhood. The Foundation established Pakistan’s First Mother and Child Trauma Informed School System which provides transformational education and holistic support to children and their mothers hailing from marginalized communities. Its curriculum is rooted in the belief of humanitarian values, the importance of mental health and wellbeing of self and others. Mothers learn nurturing parenting techniques, literacy, spoken English, skills and entrepreneurship. They get equipped with mental health awareness and become catalyst of change within the society. 

During the event Ms. Khatri gave an emotional, insightful and eye-opening speech on the experiences and learnings that led to the creation of Kiran Foundation. With so many social stigmas in place, the journey for Ms. Khatri was incredibly difficult and heart wrenching. And yet through it, she found the underlying strength and power in womanhood, mumta, love and attention that has saved countless children and their families in Lyari and other marginalized communities in Pakistan.

“I am proud to be a woman. That inner feeling of ‘mumta’ brought Kiran Foundation into existence. It all started with that one child and mother with whom I worked for two years. I didn’t do anything special than anyone else would have done. I kept them in my home, heard her story, and gave them lots of care, love and attention with no strings attached. Using the activities I did with them I built the curriculum for Kiran Foundation.”

Kiran is not a school, it’s an ideology, it’s a paradigm shift, a different way of parenting. It has revolutionized the parenting in Lyari. Kiran Foundation’s ideology is living in people’s heart and is transferred from generation to the next. Heart to heart. Once we change the hearts of perpetrators, they turn from the biggest danger to the biggest supporter.

My message for all the women in the room is that everything happens for a reason. If you have been deprived of something, if there is a whole in your heart, it is that whole from which the light is entering. Do not close it.”

Thanks to the courage and relentless efforts of Ms. Khatri and her supporters, today over 800 children and their mothers have found a safe haven in DCTO Government School – the adopted government school in Lyari built from the ground up by Kiran Foundation and run with their curriculum that truly nurtures the family unit as a whole.

The event was well-attended by the staff and supporters of IHHN as well as senior leaders at IHHN including Shakeel Akhtar, Chief Information Officer, Information Technology Directorate; Dr. Muhammad Shamvil Ashraf, Executive Director, Medical Services Directorate, IHHN; and Dr. Farah Bari, Deputy General Manager and Head of Sheikh Saeed Medical Campus, IHHN.

At the end of the event, Ms. Sabina Khatri was presented with a token of appreciation for her time, humanitarian efforts, and remarkable impact.