The World Vision Field Worker, based in Ghazikhot, North West Frontier Province, is now a key member of the team conducting detailed assessments of needs in villages across the Siran Valley.

I am very pleased to be able to help people who have very hard lives since the earthquake

Here thousands died in the October earthquake. Hundreds of villages suffered extensive damage, reducing family homes to rubble. Many still live a harsh daily battle for survival as the winter chill still bites and lack of basic amenities hampers recovery.

“I am very pleased to be able to help people who have very hard lives since the earthquake,” says the 22-year-old with a smile.

She is part of an assessment team to establish long-term needs for the reconstruction phase following the catastrophe. Today she talks to members of mountain village communities about their lives and needs for the future.

She understands, because she comes from a village similar to those she visits across the mountains of Mansehra District.

Zahida was born in the village of Manda Gucha, 6,000 feet up in the mountains. When the disaster struck her community 50 members of her family were killed on her mother’s side, though her parents, three brothers and three sisters were spared.

She came to work at World Vision in Ghazikhot as a receptionist in November 2005. “I knew World Vision was helping people with their lives and was pleased to be a part of that,” she explains.

But last month (February) she was offered a new role as Field Officer – and was overjoyed.

The three-week assessment of villages in the Siran Valley will be used to shape four long-term projects focusing on livelihoods, humanitarian protection, education and disaster mitigation. And Zahida is delighted to be working in the mountains, close to the people she knows, helping communities.

In addition to her full-time job with World Vision, she is a radio star in the nearby town of Abbotabad, where she has been hosting a magazine programme for students at Radio Pakistan at the weekends.

Education is close to her heart, as she explains: “When I got to three years of age I was not sent to school as girls were not allowed at school, so I started to learn things around the village, but could not get anything except sewing and things to help my mother. I remained in my village until the age of 14 and could not see life in cities.”

Some nine million school-age children were out of school in Pakistan before the quake – 5.9 million of them girls. The average enrolment figure of girl students in three districts of the North West Frontier Province was just 37 per cent, according to provincial government figures in early 2005. Less than 50 per cent of girls finish school.

Yet something remarkable happened to Zahida when she visited Abbotabad for the first time. “This was a great opportunity for me. Boys and girls were playing here and everyone was looking beautiful,” she recalls.

She noticed girls were reading the newspaper and laughing. When she asked them to read to her because she was illiterate, they refused.

50 members of her family were killed on her mother’s side, though her parents, three brothers and three sisters were spared

“Then I realised with a sad heart that this is not my world and I have no right to it until the time I overcome my deficiencies. I got the newspaper from the girls and started studying, but I could not get a single word. I was really very upset at this time because the label illiterate was upon me. At that time I took a firm decision to study at any cost.”

Equipped with a course book she bought at the bazaar, she began her study by opening an Urdu book. But she could not make out a single word.

The next day she opened the same book and concentrated on word building.

She said: “Something started coming in my mind, as my mother had taught me the Holy Koran and how to spell the words. So I was able to pick out words from the book. I was very happy I was able to spell the words.”

Encouraged by her first success, she adds: “Then I put myself into a room and started studying without caring for time or food. There was no electricity, so lantern was alternative. In the room the lantern and my book were my companions for three months until I was able to read and write Urdu.”

English was her next target. She tried hiring a teacher, but was refused. She managed to find a book in which English was phrased in Urdu – and within a further three months was able to read and write English.

She has never looked back, taking the required level of maths in her stride and passing her Matric Examination.

“This,” she says, “was not less than a miracle by the blessing of Allah (Almighty) that I passed my matriculation examination in two years and got through all these sufferings without a teacher. Otherwise it is beyond human approach to do this kind of hard work.”

Since then Zahida has studied at the Muhammadan College of Commerce, obtaining a degree – but her dream is for further study, aiming to complete a post-graduate course.

These days life remains busier than ever for Zahida. In addition to serving World Vision, she studies and presents her regular radio shows at the weekends, which are heard across North West frontier Province, focusing on education, sports - and the movie business.

It’s a busy life, but she says her faith has kept her strong. And what does her family think? “They are very happy about my education – they think it is a miracle, as I do.”