Inspirational

I was checking out the news as I do daily on the BBC website and came across an item about this 16 year old in Bengal, India and I just went WOW!

I have been suffering from severe lack of inspiration since the summer but this news item got me all fired up, here is a kid of 16 who gets up early, helps with the household chores then has 12km journey to school, his school is government run so the education is provided free but it still costs his family $40 PER YEAR for his uniform, books and travel, and he is the first member of his family EVER to have a proper education because many poor families cannot afford to send their kids to school even when the education is provided free.
Now we all know this happens in the poorer parts of the world but this is the WOW bit.
After school has finished for Babar Ali he returns home at 4pm and then starts teaching the local kids what he has learnt at school that day, he has been doing this for 6 years, that is since he was 9 years old!
800 local children come to his school every afternoon for their education which is free, he now has 10 other teachers who all like him are students at school or college who give their time voluntarily. Babar Ali doesn’t charge for anything, even books and food are given free, funded by donations, this means even the poorest can be educated.
The school has now been recognised by the local authorities and it has helped increase literacy rates in the area and quite rightly Babar Ali has won awards for his work.

The news item can be found at

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8299780.stm

I encourage you to read the whole article and the comments which have been left.

A truly awesome young man…..I’d never had thought I would be dragged back to reality by someone so young but what an inspiration he is, to be able to provide something to his community which is so simple, something so many people in this world take for granted but will make such a difference to the lives of people around him.

Now that is WOW.