November 5, 2009 marked a new milestone in Sungi’s history of women empowerment. Just in a day, three highly significant events took place in the capital city of Pakistan. The Urdu version of “We Are Poor, But So Many” by Ela R. Bhatt, and the Pakistan Chapter of SAARC Business Association of Home Based Workers (Sabah- Pakistan) were launched in a ceremony organized by Sungi and Sabah-Pakistan in Islamabad Club. It was attended by wide range of national and international delegates. And subsequently, newly constructed “Pothohari Art and Craft Village (PACV)” was inaugurated.

The book “We Are Poor but So Many” is written by Ela R. Bhatt- an eminent Indian scholar, women rights activist and founder of Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA). She is well known as the “gentle revolutionary” she has dedicated her life for improving the lives of India’s poorest and most oppressed women workers, with Gandhian thinking as her source of guidance. She has received several awards and honorary Ph D degrees from two renewed universities- Havard and Yale.

She founded SEWA in 1972 to bring poor women together and give them ways to fight for their rights and earn better livings. Today about 700,000 women are members of SEWA, which makes it the largest single primary trade union in India. The book is about the struggles and challenges that SEWA faced in its journey and describes how these were addressed and overcome.

Ela R. Bhatt has dedicated Urdu version of her book “We Are Poor, But So Many ” (Itnay Ziyaida, phir bhi Ghareeb) to Pakistani sisters. She announced it while addressing the launching ceremony in Islamabad Club. The book depicts the real freedom and it reunites us- - She maintained. The launch is good beginning of friendly relations among people of both the countries- Pakistan and India