: Agent of Hope: How One Woman’s Belief is Uplifting 1000s of Children in Kargil #IndiaNEWS #Education For Stanzin Saldon, a 33-year-old social entrepreneur based out of Kargil who also goes by Shifah,

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Agent of Hope: How One Woman’s Belief is Uplifting 1000s of Children in Kargil #IndiaNEWS #Education
For Stanzin Saldon, a 33-year-old social entrepreneur based out of Kargil who also goes by Shifah, conformity was never a strong suit. For as long as Saldon can remember, she always went with her heart and navigated through some rough waters with her independence intact.
She dropped out of medical college to pursue a career in social service. She fell in love, married a man of another faith, and converted to that faith of her own free will despite violent opposition from reactionary elements of the local Buddhist community in Leh. Today, Saldon is actively working for gender equality in Kargil, home to a largely conservative Shia Muslim community, while also improving public school education in this neglected corner of Ladakh.
“Ever since I was a child, I have usually gone with my heart. How I felt about certain situations, my urge to express it, and the spirit of social service are driving factors in everything. In hindsight, it does seem like I overcame difficult and sometimes life-threatening situations. But at the time, it didn’t feel that way,� says Saldon, speaking to The Better India.
Today, she runs rZamba, a Kargil-based charitable trust registered in 2017, which is working extensively in education, adolescent health, livelihood generation and youth leadership. Co-founded alongside her husband, Syed Murtaza Agha, and friends Fayaz Ali, Ali Asgar and Marzia Bano, rZamba has positively impacted the lives of hundreds of students.
“A woman leading an organisation, especially one engaging in social interventions, is quite a new concept in Kargil. In fact, the very idea of a developmental professional engaged in the work I’m doing right now is quite novel here. rZamba means ‘bridge’ in the Balti language. We are here to act as a bridge between people, resources, systems and each other,� she adds.
Saldon (tope left) at the forefront of educating and raising awareness
Finding her own way
While pursuing her MBBS degree at the Government Medical College in Jammu, Saldon found opportunities to volunteer with a couple of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working with rural communities in the Jammu area. She had heard about these NGOs during a course in community medicine. Aside from enjoying the course and the experience of working with these NGOs in Jammu, she also realised that her strengths lay in engaging with people, understanding the needs of different communities, and strategizing social programs.
Taking a firm decision, she dropped out of medical college in her second year and enrolled for a Bachelors degree programme in social work through correspondence. It was sometime around the intervening months of 2014 and 2015 when she visited Kargil for the first time in a meaningful way.

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