Mumbai

When the Covid-19 struck India in 2020 leading to a sudden lockdown, it just happened that Faiyyaz Sheikh and his wife Mizga Sheikh were getting ready to buy their dream house. Faiyyaz had withdrawn Re 4.5 lakh from his provident fund for booking the house.

Suddenly the couple realized that people around them were facing job losses and hunger as most didn’t have enough to buy the food. Maharashtra, as such, was one of the worst affected stated due to Covid-19.

His wife Mizga Sheikh, who runs a school in Ambujwadi, Malad, for the underprivileged children were receiving calls from the parents of students about food scarcity and hunger.

Faiyyaz empathized with them; he too, as a child growing up in a slum in Malad amidst stinking poverty, knew how the stomach churns without food.

He and his wife decided to use the money they had kept for their house to help the needy. They started the distribution of dry rations to the people living in the Ambujwadi slum area. The couple helped 14,000 families, initially with their own money and later by roping in more NGOs in the campaign to feed the hungry.

Faiyyaz was raised in a slum; he remembers his childhood spent in acute poverty and deprivation, especially of food. So helping the slum dwellers in Mulad, where he grew up, came to him as soon as he started doing well in life.

Mizga and Faiyyaz Sheikh

Faiyyaz, who had started as a salesman in a private perfume company, rose to become its manager through his hard work and dedication. On revisiting his childhood place, he only realized the life was the same for its dwellers.

First his wife Mizga opened a school for the slum children in Ambujwadi and later another one for higher classes.

This year, Faiyyaz also lost his job in the economic downfall due to the second wave of the Covid-19 and he received Rs 10 lakh as compensation from his company. Instead of wallowing in self-pity or rushing to look for the next job, Faiyyaz decided to use his money to upscale his project.

This 44-year old man has opened a community kitchen in Malad, where he also feeds the hungry and pr0vides rations to the poor.

Faiyyaz Sheikh had revisited the slum ten years ago and what he saw disturbed him a lot. He had his wife opened an elementary school to educate the children and another English medium school to help the community come up in life.

Faiyyaz Sheikh says his goal is to satisfy people's hunger and give women their legitimate rights.

He believes that helping someone in difficult times is the greatest humanity.