This is the story of Reshma, a story of empowerment, leadership and overcoming oppression in Pakistan.
This photo (right) of Reshma was taken 2 February, 2014 at Jhirruk (35kms south of Hyderabad) when deeds of ownership and possession for new housing were handed to 14 families who had been made homeless during the 2010 and 2011 floods.
Reshma is Hindu. She is married and has three children. When asked about her age, she replies not from vanity but from total lack of knowledge, "God knows".
Reshma is a board member of the Bethlehem Shelter Society which legally administers the land and housing. 46 Families have now been housed in new homes at Bethlehem and the construction of 44 more new houses is planned.
Overcoming the stereotype of the oppression of women in Pakistan, Reshma is the leader of this expanding community of families at Bethlehem. She chairs meetings with the building contractor, is spokesperson when visitors come to Bethlehem, and is a vocal participant at board meetings.
In January, 2012, during a ceremony at Government House in Karachi hosted by the governor of Sindh, Reshma spoke on behalf of 30 families who were the first to receive papers for their new homes. 
Recently she played an important part in taking steps to overcome the problem of illiteracy at Bethlehem when five young men from Bethlehem were selected to begin two years of accelerated learning in April 2014 at the Catholic Youth Development Centre in Hyderabad. Illiteracy is high amongst the growing settlement of the 90 families at Bethlehem and Reshma herself is illiterate.
Reshma’s first contact with St Elizabeth Hospital in Hyderabad was in 2009, where Columban Fr Robert McCulloch was the Chairman of the Administrative Council of St Elizabeth Hospital. St Elizabeth’s mobile medical outreach team visited the small group of families where she was living. The medical outreach teams continued to care for them and thousands of other families during the floods of 2010 and 2011. The people lost everything during the floods.
After the second flood in 2011, Reshma’s group of homeless families were pushed off land when they tried to put up temporary shelters. One time a landlord had his men burn the people’s shacks and shelters to get rid of them. Hearing that St Elizabeth’s had begun building houses to re-house flood victims, Reshma went to see James Francis (administrator of St Elizabeth Hospital) and asked if anything could be done for her people.
The anything that Reshma asked about has become the good thing at Bethlehem. The level of harmonious understanding, cooperation and interaction that has developed between Reshma (representing the Bethlehem families,), St Elizabeth Hospital and the board of the Shelter society
is all-inspiring.
Reshma is a born leader who has led through adversity. Her skills haven't spurred from tertiary-level training or costly seminars or gaining an MBA (Master of Business Administration). They have come from negotiating with powerful landlords, corrupt work supervisors and marauding police about survival, protection of pregnant women and children forced to work in fields, and the proper distribution of crops as payment for months of manual agricultural labour.
Living, surviving and representing a community of over 600 people has given Reshma a huge competence that is empowering, authentic and effective in itself. She has succeeded and broken through gender stereotypes and roles, in her own tribal community and in the wider Pakistani context.
Reshma's love and compassion for her people and community, and for her faith in herself 'for change' has made her an extraordinary woman.
Columban Fr Robert McCulloch has been a missionary in Pakistan since 1978, where he was the Chairman of the Administrative Council of St Elizabeth Hospital. He now resides in Rome after taking up an appointment in late 2011 as the Procurator General for St Columbans Mission Society. Fr McCulloch returns to Pakistan several times each year.