When Nikhat Khatun was growing up she saw her mother, who worked as a domestic help, struggle to raise her and her two siblings.

The 25-year-old now works at a clinic and earns enough to take care of her mother and manage the family expenses. Her mother no longer works at people’s homes.

“When we were growing up, my mother worked as a domestic help, carried bricks at construction sites and did whatever she could to earn a little more,” Nikhat told Metro.

It was her mother’s hard work and struggles that made Nikhat a little more resolute towards her goal while still in school.

Nikhat went to Future Hope.

A day scholar, she would ask her teachers to let her stay in the school hostel during exams because the house where she lived with eight other members did not give her the scope to study.

“It used to be chaotic,” she said.

Nikhat did not have the privileges many her age enjoyed or took for granted.

“I did not have many expectations because I know one cannot have it all. I was satisfied that I was getting educated. My priority was education because I knew that would be my tool to change my circumstances,” said Nikhat.

“Initially, my goal was to complete my education and then get a job. But I graduated in 2021 and I was scared because at that time people were losing jobs and here I was a fresh graduate desperate to get a job,” she said.

She has been working at a south Calcutta homeopathy clinic since November 2021.

Nikhat is simultaneously pursuing an MBA through distance learning.

After completing Class XII, she went Acharya Institute of Graduate Studies in Bangalore.

Coming this far was not easy.

Her father died when she was a little girl and it was her mother who brought up the three children. Nikhat was the eldest of the three.

“Till Class VIII, I was in a hostel. But in Class IX, because of some internal dispute, the hostel shut down. It was then that my mother took me to Future Hope. Since then, till I got a job, Future Hope has taken care of me,” she said.

“There were long periods when we would live separated from our mother (in hostel) and that would be upsetting. But I now have the maturity to understand that she did that to ensure that we study. Unlike many others around me, my mother never insisted that I get married instead of doing a job,” said Nikhat.

Nikhat visits her alma mater to speak to the girls and boys, all of whom are fighting financial challenges every day.

“I see myself in many of them. I like going back to Future Hope to talk to the students there. I tell them my story, where I came from. I hope that will motivate them. I tell them it is important to have a goal in life and be focused,” she said.

Sujata Sen, chief executive officer of Future Hope, said an alumna coming back was a source of inspiration for current students.

“They (alumni) would have had similar experiences and have gone through the system. They share their experiences and how they overcame hurdles, which inspires the current students,” said Sen.