Teen Spotlight: Teen Heroes
High schoolers around Atlanta are using the pandemic downtime to serve their communities. Khabar brings the third article of this series highlighting their work.
Azeez Ishaqui
While the Covid-19 pandemic threatens to set back communities across the globe, Azeez Ishaqui, a senior at Westminster High School in Atlanta, is working to give those tools required to not only weather the storm, but also thrive against the impossible odds.
On a trip to Channapatna, India, in his freshman year, Azeez recognized that many of the local vendors often could not afford to rent cars, and therefore struggled to transport their products from place to place. Through his grandmother’s contact in Channapatna, Azeez began funding the construction and distribution of makeshift carts for vendors who were in need. After seeing that many families in the village also could not afford to buy food to break their fast during Ramadan, Azeez broadened his efforts to provide staples such as grain, flour, oil, and sugar to these families for the entire month. Azeez also took note of the plight of Channapatna’s large population of impoverished widows and began efforts to train and supply them with sewing machines so they could earn their own income instead of depending on donations.
Azeez shared the touching story of one of the families he sponsored saying, “One of the widows who received a sewing machine three or four years ago started stitching garments for people in the village and doing projects for the nearby hospital. Because of this, her kids were able to have a really good education and one of her kids is now studying engineering at a nearby college. This would have never been possible if she didn’t have a recurring, sustainable income. It was really wonderful to talk to her firsthand, and hopefully she can continue to give back to her family.”
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Azeez found an opportunity to connect the needs of the widows in India to the needs of the metro Atlanta community. “There are some really skilled seamstresses in the village, so I thought if our contact could buy the fabric and distribute it to the widows, they could sew masks and ship them back to the U.S., where I could then give them to homeless shelters,” Azeez explained. “It took a little bit of time, but production started happening, and I got over a thousand masks shipped to homeless shelters across Atlanta.”
Azeez stressed the importance of his shift from offering short-term economic relief to actually equipping families with the tools to achieve social mobility saying, “Earlier I used to donate immediate necessities—I used to donate money to food to people who needed it. After much thinking, I realized how it’s more important to provide someone help for the long-term rather than immediate necessities. Even our Ramadan project, which comes the closest to purely donating food, lasts a month.”
Initially, Azeez depended on donations from family and friends to provide a few carts and sewing machines, but his sources of funding have since grown to match his expanded efforts. Azeez has partnered with the International Fund for Economic Development which donates to his cause monthly and has raised over $2,400 on GoFundMe. He has also created a short film and website about his project to raise awareness for his service projects and to generate funds to continue his work in India.
Azeez credited his grandmother with getting him involved in service saying, “The biggest inspiration was probably my dadi who from a young age always told me to donate. It started with this little shoebox. At every birthday, relatives would give me money, so she gave me a little shoebox and I’ve been gathering money in that since then. Every now and then she’d say, ‘Your shoebox is filling up why don’t you give some money away.’ After a few years and much convincing from her, I started donating regularly, and after that it started happening more and more and that’s how this project came about.”
Anjali Joshi
Children are often left in the dark when it comes to their own healthcare. understanding preventable diseases such as Type 2 diabetes. Anjali Joshi, a student at South Forsyth High School, is using the power of her pen to change that by educating and empowering children to be more proactive in their health care.
At just 17, Anjali has already established herself as an author and educator by publishing her book, Learning About You Preventing Type Two. The book, which is already on Amazon Best Seller list and Number 1 on Amazon’s Children’s Personal Hygiene Books category, is an educational resource that discusses Type 2 diabetes and its prevention.
Anjali revealed that she was inspired to write the book because of her own struggles to understand Type 2 diabetes as a child after her grandparents were diagnosed with it. “As a kid, I looked for any resources—I looked for books, articles, videos, anything—that could help me understand what diabetes was, so then I could find a way to prevent it,” Anjali recalled. “I found that all of the available material was about the adult onset of diabetes or written in a way that was appropriate for adults. This is when I found a gap in educational material on Type 2 diabetes for children. As I continued to research more, I found that due to the obesity crisis in America, kids as young as nine and ten are getting Type 2 diabetes. Having this knowledge really made me aware of the problems our country is facing. So, all this was the inspiration behind Learning About You Preventing Type Two.”
Anjali has donated copies of her books to pediatricians and Boys & Girls Clubs of America in the hope of making information about diabetes more accessible to children everywhere. “When I donated copies of my book, I heard back from students and pediatricians saying that the book is a very effective resource” Anjali shared. “The overall consensus has been positive, and I have heard back from children, adults, and families telling me how the book has really initiated something in these families and has helped them implement positive lifestyle changes. Hearing back from children and parents telling me how the book has caused their families to eat healthier and change their fitness routines has been very special.”
However, the impact of Anjali’s book goes far beyond pediatric care. A portion of the proceeds from the sales of the book goes to Ken’s Corner Foundation, a nonprofit that Anjali heads as the Director of Events. Under Anjali’s leadership, Ken’s Corner Foundation has hosted essential supplies giveaways for Covid-19 relief; a school supplies donation event for underserved elementary schools; and food and water donations to sports teams at underserved high schools.
Anjali intends to continue pursuing a future in healthcare and to expand the Learning About You series to discuss a wide variety of diseases. Anjali concluded her interview with a word of advice to fellow teens interested in becoming authors and healthcare leaders saying, “If you have an idea or a goal or anything that you wish to pursue and if you put your mind and all of your effort towards it, you will be successful. Oftentimes, we are the ones that shut down our goals and our own ideas, but if we put in the hard work, there’s no limit on what we are able to accomplish.”
Bhavana Kunnath, a senior at Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology, is the editor-in-chief of Infinitas, the school’s literary magazine. She is currently an intern with Khabar magazine, and can be reached at kunnathbhavana@gmail.com. To comment on this article, please write to letters@khabar.com.
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