Every line on the face of 48-year-old Ghulam Sughra tells the story of years of hardships. She was born in a poor and conservative family of a factory worker in a suburb of Rawalpindi, 10 miles south of Islamabad.

"When I would watch my brothers go to school," Sughra, now a mother of three, recalls, "I wished I could go with them." But her uncle ruled the family, and he strongly opposed education for girls. Despite her desire to attend school, Sughra remained illiterate.

As she grew up, she continued to desire an education. She became her mother's helper around the house and learned how to cook. "Someone once told me about cooking recipes printed in magazines," she recalls. "I clipped and hid them away, dreaming there might come a day when I'd be able to read them."

Today she can read those recipes and a lot more. More than a year and a half ago, Sughra completed training in USAID's Interactive Teaching and Learning Program. With a voice that reflects new self-esteem, Sughra displayed her recipe collection, which includes newspaper clippings like those she wished she could read in years past.

The $7.8 million Interactive Teaching and Learning Program is being implemented in 400 schools throughout Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Karachi. The family literacy component aims to promote literacy by bringing parents and their children together in a comfortable learning environment.

Over 800 teachers have been trained to carry out the program, which includes 100 language and math lessons. Thus far, more than 5,200 parents and adult siblings of students in 140 schools in Rawalpindi, Islamabad, and Karachi have received literacy training and learned basic math skills whereas three thousand parents and adult siblings are currently enrolled under this program.

Now that she can read her saved collection of recipes, Sughra cooks meals that her family has judged as exceptional as her youngest daughter, who is preparing for her own graduation exams, continues to help Sughra improve her reading and cooking skills.

In addition to recipes, Sughra can also easily read Urdu newspapers and make household calculations. Recently, a neighborhood vegetable vendor was shocked when Sughra reminded him of the money that he had promised to pay her months ago ? he had not realized that she was now able to write and was keeping a small ledger of expenses.

"I was like a partially blind person who could only see shadows," Sughra says. "USAID brought me the vision to see the world - a world I was so eager to see."