For 18-year-old Chloe Bieber, getting to Lahore, Pakistan wasn’t easy. To enter, she needed permission from the Government of Pakistan, a travel visa, and a personal invitation from the family she was staying with. She traveled with her best friend, Ayesha Raza, who has family in Lahore.
While in Pakistan, she went to a small village with dirt roads, donkeys and huts built by the women of the village, who did everything. Bieber says she felt empowered as a woman during her stay in Pakistan.
“It was really neat to see how women had the most respect,” she says. “If you disrespect your dad [in Pakistan], that’s one thing. But if you disrespect your mom, you’re done.”
Bieber was in Pakistan on Dec. 16 of last year when 148 people were killed by the Taliban at a school in Peshawar — an hour and a half away from Lahore. Most of the victims were children. A few weeks before leaving Fredericton, there was suicide-bombing attack in Wagah, a small village bordering India, 30 minutes away from Lahore. Approximately 60 people were killed.
In spite of all the strife, Bieber still found Pakistan beautiful, and felt safer there than she does in her downtown apartment on Aberdeen Street. She says she tries to live through a lens of positivity.
“I just try to inspire people wherever I go.”
On Dec. 23, Bieber and her friend handed out care packs to children in the village that were put together by Oromocto High School students. Toy trucks, pencils and colouring books made their way into 100 little hands. She was the first white person they ever saw in person.
The children surrounded her screaming, while she tried to hand them out. Raza’s cousin led her to another room where they waited 45 minutes until the children calmed down. She thought of a solution— give one toy to one child at a time.
“I got to sit with them and give them a toy and that was a much better process,” said Bieber.
“It was the best day I ever lived.”
By the end of the night, the entire community joined Bieber, Raza and her family while they celebrated. The women in the community were so thankful that they prepared a feast. Bieber says in Pakistan, it’s a privilege to be able to serve other people.
Returning to Canada, she was inspired to give.
Bieber, who works at Envy Clothing Company, won a contest while she was away. Her prize was a $750 Canada Goose jacket. When she went to pick it up, she brought her mother and gave it to her. Her mom was in tears.
“It felt better giving the jacket to my mom then it did if I would have kept it,” she says, smiling.
She believes in the law of attraction, and enjoys making dream boards, something she’s been doing for almost two years. She thinks that’s one of the reasons why she won the coat.
Before winning the jacket, Bieber would tell her co-workers that the jacket was hers, and even got someone to take a picture of her wearing it. She envisioned it as her own.
Bieber is in her first year at Renaissance College at University of New Brunswick. She wants to be an international development specialist and work with children.
Bieber has always liked helping people, and last summer, she worked for World Vision International. Her grandfather helped start the Fredericton Community Kitchen, and the Fredericton Men’s Shelter.
“I knew I wanted to follow on his footsteps, but on a global scale.”
