​​​​​Gul Bano is a fighter. At 32 years of age, she has seen more than her share of hardships and adversity. Married at the age of 15, she discovered that her husband was a drug addict who eventually abandoned her with four children to care for. Gul Bano learnt how to survive, taking on the poorly paid but home-based work of gluing tiny sequins onto dresses. She would stay up many nights, hunched over fancy dresses she could never afford, forcing herself to concentrate on the next bead or knot that would keep hunger at bay.

Her persistent labour caused her to develop abdominal hernia. A kindly neighbour arranged a surgery for her at a small local hospital, but the surgery failed. The surgeon did not insert the mesh required to heal the hernia, and her condition worsened.  Gul Bano lived in sheer agony for the next 3 years. All this time, due to the restrictions placed on her by strict cultural customs, Gul Bano remained confined to her rented house in Kati Pahari, Karachi, sobbing her pain away. Not knowing where to turn, in her weakest moments, when the pain was at its most intense, Gul Bano says she prayed for deliverance through death, but at her most hopeful she prayed for help. 

God answered her prayers. Gul Bano's family was selected by Project L-O-V-E, a local NGO. Project L-O-V-E brought Gul Bano to the Aga Khan University Hospital. There, with the help of the Patients' Behbud Society at AKUH, she was immediately afforded best-in-class healthcare. Gul Bano underwent a successful surgery in which her hernia was treated and damage from her previous botched surgery was repaired.  Follow-up visits later confirmed that Gul Bano was healing very well.

Gul Bano is now essentially cured. She prays five times a day, thanking Allah SWT for all the donors of The Patients' Behbud Society who gave her a new lease on life and a hope filled future.

Gul Bano is not the only one in need of help. There are thousands of deserving individuals in need of your help. You can donate your zakat or sadaqah to help bring smiles across many distressed faces.​​​

​​​To Donate, click here.​