A life spent helping children
Women are a powerhouse in all facets of life, and in celebration of Women’s Day CHARLENE SOMDUTH speaks to influential women about their successful careers, motherhood and community work
WHEN her son miraculously woke up from a coma following a serious car accident more than a decade ago, Saira Khan made a promise to God to dedicate her life to helping children.
Today she is instrumental in providing meals to 75 400 children in crèches and 4000 university students in South Africa.
The turning point for Khan, 53, the chief executive of Rise Against Hunger Africa, was in
2001 when her son Nadeem spent 19 weeks in a coma after being involved in a car crash.
“He had sustained a severe brain injury and had to be kept on life support. He was in matric at the time and had so many dreams and ambitions. As a mother I was left completely shattered and powerless. My only comfort was that I had the financial means to get him the best medical care,” said Khan of Johannesburg.
But while praying for her son’s recovery, Khan was dealt another blow when her mother, Zukekha, died.
“At that point I turned to God for help. Losing my mother and not knowing if Nadeem was going to make it was too much to bear. I remember promising God that if he gave me back my child, I would dedicate my life to helping children. The very next day Nadeem awoke from the coma.”
His recovery, however, was not an easy one, and Khan had to quit her job as the chief executive of the South African Society of Physiotherapy to focus on caring for Nadeem.
“When I took him home he was in a wheelchair, and doctors told me he might never walk again. But I was not going to accept that as his fate without trying. I worked with him for months and eventually got him walking.”
Once she felt Nadeem was able to cope without her, Khan set out to fulfil her promise to God – but that was also challenging as many organisations found her to be “overqualified”.
“Bertie Lubner from the PG Glass group gave me my break when I joined their organisation Ma’Afrika Tikkun. After a few years with them, I joined Rise Against Hunger Africa.”
When Khan joined the nonprofit organisation in 2015, they fed 9 000 children three times a week.
“I could not understand why we as a global organisation were feeding children only three times a week. I grew concerned because I did not know where they were getting their meals from the rest of the days.”
Khan said she immediately changed the feeding to three meals a day, five times a week, but her goal had always been to reach more children. After doing research, she found that the highest number of starving children came from KwaZuluNatal, and she opened branches in Pietermaritzburg, and thereafter the Eastern Cape.
“Our aim has always been empowerment. So with the money the crèches were saving from not buying food, we told them to use it towards maintaining and developing the crèches. We also help universities in Gauteng, who were seeing a 40% failure rate in their first-year students because they were not eating before coming to lectures, and now we provide meals for 4 000 students.”
For her work, Khan has received numerous international accolades, including a recent award from the Women’s Economic Forum. But her the greatest reward is knowing she could take a negative situation and turn it into something positive.
Her strength, she said, came from the support of her family.