Responsibility shared by two

Mushahid Khan is a taxi driver in Abu Dhabi, from Peshawar, whose remittance goes towards household expenses every month.

Mushahid Khan regularly sends money home to Peshawar, Pakistan to help support his immediate family with education and food.

For Mushahid Khan, it was his elder brother who paved the way to a better future, enabling him to go abroad and lift the family from poverty. About three years ago the brother, who lives and works in Saudi Arabia, told him that he had saved enough money to pay for Mr Khan's passage to the UAE. So Mr Khan took his first foray outside Pakistan and his first aeroplane ride to work as a taxi driver.

He earns Dh1,000 (US$272) a month, including tips, and sends home about Dh2,500 every few months. As an electrician in Peshawar, he earned about Dh600 a month. Even with his brother's job abroad, that salary was not enough to support a family of six. "I don't send money home every month," he said. "My brother and I share the responsibility. When he sends I don't have to, so I save that and send every few months. But we know that the parents are very happy now. They have enough. They don't worry about it. So we are happy too." [e-mail]