WESTMINSTER TEEN HELPING POOR ON TWO CONTINENTS

Senior empowers widows in India to make masks for Atlanta homeless.

An Atlanta teen is helping impoverished people on two continents survive the coronavirus.

Azeez Ishaqui, a 17-year-old from Smyrna just beginning his senior year at Westminster High School, is donating reusable cloth face masks to Atlanta homeless shelters.

In India, widows make the masks, using sewing machines that Azeez has been giving to them for several years.

Azeez said he wanted to give these women “an avenue to earn some money” and “help the world a little in the current pandemic.”

Azeez has always had a heart for India’s poor. He was born in Georgia, but his parents and grandparents are from India, and he has cousins, aunts and uncles who live there.

Growing up, his grandmother Najma Ishaqui, who lives with Azeez and his family, made him aware of India’s economic disparities.

“We always told him he has to help the poor,” Najma Ishaqui said. She gave her grandson a tiny brown box so he could save his money.

He regularly gave from that box, but the poverty and hardships he saw in India, especially with kids his age, continued to trouble him.

Westminster college counselor Anthea Economy said Azeez was “moved by the economic disparity so much that an unstoppable force from within told him to do something about it, and, thus, his service project was born.”

Initially, he and his grandmother arranged to have pantry foods given to the hungry during Ramadan.

They wanted to do more. When visiting his cousins, Azeez had seen men selling goods from heavily laden bags carried on their backs. He and his grandmother decided to purchase carts to make their task easier.

In 2017, Azeez began donating, first carts and then sewing machines to impoverished men and widows in a small village near Bengaluru, India. He said most of the widows have multiple children and no permanent source of income.

Mom Huma Ishaqui said this proved to be a very organized way of doing charity work because instead of giving money away, the tools would ensure recurring income.

Every year, the Ishaqui family and friends pitch in to purchase five sewing machines and five carts.

Last year, during Thanksgiving, Azeez and his father visited the village and met

Westminster college counselor Anthea Economy said Azeez was ‘moved by the economic disparity so much that an unstoppable force from within told him to do something about it, and, thus, his service project was born.’

the families they have been helping.

The men said they could sell their goods more effectively using the carts, and the women were using the sewing machines for paid projects, stitching hospital gowns and other items. Many of the women said they no longer needed the free pantry items.

“I felt overwhelmed by how much of a difference this has made in their lives,” Azeez said. “These donations I’ve been able to do have changed their lives significantly, and they’re consistently able to support themselves. I felt really good about that.”

Azeez came up with the face mask project after his biomedical engineering summer internship at Georgia Tech was canceled because of the coronavirus.

He got 1,000 masks in production this summer and delivered them to the Atlanta Mission, Our House and The Salvation Army. Azeez also set up a GoFundMe account to raise $5,000 for more masks. He buys the cloth and materials and pays to have the face coverings made and shipped.

Throughout his school career, Azeez has been active in serving others, said Cindy Trask, Westminster’s Head of Upper School.

“It is no surprise to me that during this time of global uncertainty due to COVID-19 that Azeez has been moved to reach out and find ways to help,” said Trask. “That is who he is, and I join his family in feeling proud and grateful for his support of others.”

When his senior year is complete, Azeez would like to study biomedical engineering to help others, like his sister, who was born with a hearing disorder and must wear hearing aids.

For now, he’s going to keep making the annual donations of carts and sewing machines, keep up with mask production and enjoy senior year.

PHIL SKINNER / FOR THE AJC Westminster senior Azeez Ishaqui and his grandmother Najma Ishaqui look through a box of face masks that just arrived in their Smyrna home. During the pandemic, Azeez came up with an idea to have women from India sew face masks that he would donate to homeless shelters in metro Atlanta. His grandmother helped him accomplish that with her connections there.