Sultana was in her 30s when she was suffering the abuse of her alcoholic husband, she along with her two daughters was forced to spend two days without food, and had to survive on water, and when her husband tried to kill her daughter – she turned her back on him. She went to her mother and took shelter. She was free, but the struggle to survive continued and without proper education there wasn’t much she could do until she discovered the cooking classes conducted by SAFA. Today, she is a home chef and earns her livelihood. Asiya, who was widowed at a young age, and had to face trauma, humiliation and harassment; Saleha who was deserted by her husband 18 years after their wedding leaving her to poverty with her three beautiful daughters, and accused of being a bad wife and mother – all of them have one thing in common – they found refuge in the cooking classes by SAFA, and are now playing an active part in running their kitchens, and earning enough to support their families and educate their children.
Dar-ul-Shifa is one of the oldest parts of Hyderabad, and the area gets its name from the 16th century hospital, which was later converted into a place of worship for the Shias during the Nizams time.
It was after the second lockdown, when an invitation to an art show at ‘Luqma by SAFA’, a cloud kitchen and studio space took us to the area. SAFA is a social enterprise working towards empowering women. They reach out to women who are deserted, divorced, or with chronically ill primary wage earner, and are dealing with poverty. They upskill women in their chosen vocations and strive to make them economically independent. Luqma is one of their initiatives to find livelihood for the women trained in cooking. The studio space is also exclusively for women available on rent for events, meetings, discussions etc.
Luqma is the Urdu word for morsel. Here, women chefs are trained at cooking in commercial format, standardised recipes are taught. Soon, Luqma turned into a revenue making food business model. The first kitchen was opened in the urban slum of Vattepally, near Falaknuma, before moving to a larger space at DarulShifa, which is more convenient logistically speaking.
It is from this kitchen that the women chefs made food for thousands on a daily basis during the Covid pandemic. They would receive orders from donors interested in distributing free food during lock down, and this they continue to do till date.
Fareesa Khan and Rubina Mazhar, the sister duo are the visionaries who run SAFA. It is their second kitchen at Darulshifa that opened with some help from beneficiaries. Now. Luqma also has its own brand of packed food products, “Our aim is to deliver authentic Hyderabadi cuisine. We take pre-orders. Our packed food vertical consists of potli masala, biryani and chai masala, baghara baigan, khatte ka masala and sookhey kebab. Every time you buy a product from Luqma you provide marginalised women with livelihood. We follow and maintain strict hygiene standards and covid compliances. Food is made by women who are divorced, widowed single women and seek to empower themselves through economic empowerment. All women are trained by industry recognised chefs in hygienic high-end kitchens. Each bite is a guarantee on taste and value in money.”
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Our aim is to empower women so that one day they can run their own kitchens, and then we can train new set of girls, shares Fareesa.
Recently chefs from Luqma created a dazzling menu of Hyderabadi khana as a part of 10-day long food festival at Novotel Hyderabad Airport. For Luqma chefs who have been making food for thousands, serving a buffet menu for a restaurant full of diners must be a cake walk. However, the experience of working in a huge professional kitchen at Novotel Hyderabad Airport, and the exposure fine dining and adapting their food to the format is definitely a new experience. The Luqma women spearheaded the promotion and cooked soulful food that one usually finds in Hyderabadi homes prepared with love and attention to detail. “We are very happy. It is a different experience. We are staying here for the duration of the festival. And, when I had to leave my house, my kids were crying. But now I made a call to them and showed them around. They have not seen a five-star hotel before this. They are quite excited that I am here, shares Razia Begum, one of the women chefs who came down for the festival.
It is experiences like these, which will throw open a sea of opportunities, and expose the chefs to the scope of growth. These wonderful women always carry with them their smile, and an inspiration to say the least.