Artist and entrepreneur Rachna is crafting her own future, while also helping dozens of other girls in her community along the path to financial independence.

Rachna had to leave school early for financial reasons, with limited skills for earning. Then Project Lehar introduced her to the traditional local craft of wheat stalk painting, and to the basic business and finance skills that would enable her to monetise it.

Now an established artist and a double entrepreneur, Rachna, 23, has her own shop, selling 200 paintings in the last year alone. She also runs daily training courses teaching other girls the craft, so that they too can earn an independent income. Rachna’s earnings have enabled her to go back to the classroom, finish her schooling and go to university.

‘Because of financial constraints, I used to struggle to pay my school fees and eventually had to drop out,’ Rachna explains. ‘But with the income I now earn from selling my paintings, I’ve been able to resume my education and even contribute to my family’s expenses.’

A brighter future

Rachna comes from a low-income family. She completed junior high school locally, but her parents could not afford the daily travel costs to the senior high school nearest to their village, so Rachna had to leave school.

When she first joined Project Lehar, Rachna’s world revolved around domestic chores at home, and her parents were preparing to arrange her marriage. But Rachna had different ambitions.

‘I wanted to step out of my home, do something meaningful, and make something of myself,’ she recalls. ‘That’s why I joined Project Lehar.’

Project Lehar, run by the Aga Khan Foundation, offers vocational training, entrepreneurship and life skills courses for girls and young women from low-income backgrounds. It also supports girls who left school early to complete their education.

Lehar supported Rachna to resist early marriage, restart her education and consider her earning options. The project also introduced her to a resurgent local craft – wheat stalk painting – and to the basic business and finance skills that would enable her to monetise it.

Enterprise and independence

Rachna worked hard to develop her crafting and design skills and soon began producing intricate artworks for sale.

‘I truly enjoy making these paintings. I love creating intricate designs – it feels like meditation to me,’ she explains.

Rachna used her earnings to fund her continued education, completing her schooling and then starting university. Today, Rachna is a final-year university student as well as an established artist and entrepreneur, and she is entirely financially independent. She now has a small shop – the only female-owned business on the block – selling hundreds of artworks each year.

But Rachna has developed a second income stream too, leading training courses in wheat-stalk painting from her shop. She currently has 20 students – all girls aged 12-17 – who each pay around $6 for a month-long basic course. Rachna hopes to equip her young trainees with the means to support themselves financially, as she does.

In 2024, Rachna added a third string to her bow when Project Lehar asked her to become their Master Trainer in wheat stalk painting. Rachna has returned to the centre where she was herself a trainee just three years ago and now leads the training programme there – equipping even more young women with the skills to build a better future.