Jacqueline Novogratz recently returned from a visit to South Asia. Following is an excerpt of her journal from Pakistan. To read the complete journal, click here. (An excerpt of the India leg of her trip was posted previously.)

April 11, 2006 - Karachi, Pakistan

We’re sitting on the outskirts of Karachi, 40 kilometers from the city center, in the headquarters of Khuda-ki-Basti (KKB), the affordable housing development scheme built by Saiban under the leadership of Tasneem Siddiqui - who, over the past four years, has become someone I deeply admire. He started working with slum dwellers beginning in 1969 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Built on reclaimed desert land outside of Karachi, KKB is a thriving community for people who lived as squatters in slum settlements. I visited KKB a couple years ago, and the difference even now is startling. There is now electricity, and Saiban is working on laying pipes for lines that are expected to deliver water in the next six months or so. Schools and clinics are in operation, and children are playing on every street. Shops are open for business, and we pass both churches and mosques.

We visit one of the earliest pioneers, a woman named Fehmida, who came with her second husband (her first was killed in an accident) and eight children (four from the first marriage and four from the second) when KKB was just beginning, when there were no services at all - no water, electricity, schools, but also no shops or services so the residents would have to walk for hours to buy milk and eggs, get gas for cooking or make a telephone call. Life wasn’t easy but she still felt it was better than what she had and would be a lot better for her children.

Today, her children are growing and her life is completely transformed, in spite of the fact that her second husband has fallen mentally ill so she is the main provider and caretaker of her brood. She lives in a two-story house now, though the first floor remains unfinished. On the second floor, there are three rooms, all of which serve both as bedrooms as well as living space; a bathroom; and a place for cooking. Her children work and help out to cover her expenses but all of them are now saving as well. She loves the change in life since coming to KKB six years ago.

We sit in the main room of the house. Fehmida sits on a straw mat, her gray hair hennaed red and covered by a light white shawl with delicate black polka dots. By the time we are midway through our conversation some of her children have gathered around. I ask the elder one - she is 15 - if she goes to school. “Yes,” she says, “but I am behind, especially in maths.” The mother explains that there were no schools for her until three years ago, and she needed her older children to work. I turn to ask the smaller girl, who is nine, about school and her face lights up. “I love school,” she says. “I want to be a doctor, a surgeon really. I want to take bullets out of people’s stomachs.”

It is because of Saiban’s arrival with safe, affordable housing, owned by people who actually live in the community, that other services have been created and offered. The difference to people’s lives of having safe homes, education, healthcare and community around them almost cannot be measured - but we have to try, so we will measure what we can.

Fehmida has paid off 38,000 rupees (about $635) of the 47,000 rupees that the plot cost. Once it is fully paid, she will consider borrowing so that she can complete the first floor of the house and make it livable for herself and her eight children. She is a woman with a mission, one who can make things happen if given the chance.

Around the corner from Fehmida, we meet a Christian man named Edwin Money, who lives nearby with his wife and children. He also has been in KKB for at least five years and tells a similar story to Fehmida. He talks to us not only about loving the fresh air and calm of the place but also about how he feels welcome here as a Christian. Indeed, ten percent of families - or 250 of them - living here are Christian. There has never been violence, and there are a number of churches for the community, something very unusual.

In less than six years, Saiban has built a safe community, a platform on which others can deliver services. Over the past five years, private service providers and well-reputed NGOs like The Citizens Foundation have built essential social services for the residents. There are now eleven primary schools, a technical college and three secondary schools, an in-patient facility and multiple health clinics. A third of the community works in the area, and a number now bring their services here.

Our next challenge with Saiban is to expand into Lahore with a fully private-sector model.

Small steps.