Ahmedabad council first approached us to give help to Kulsumben Wadiwalla as a cow kicked her son and his wife was pregnant with Mahek. After giving birth to Mahek, in 2007, her mom left Mahek behind with her mother-in-law, Kulsumben.
When Mahek turned 5, Kulsumben approached us to put Mahek in school. Kulsumben’s daughter from Rajkot helped raise Mahek to age 5. We took Mahek into the Maliya Hatina Hostel and English medium school.
Meanwhile, Kulusmben’s daughter became ill, and Kulsumben moved to Rajkot to help her daughter out. After a long sickness, Kulsumben lost her daughter, and this was hard on her to take care of Mahek, so she put Mahek into the orphanage in Rajkot. During one of our previous visits, Mahek recognized Razia at the orphanage.
After pleading for Mahek’s case in Sidhpur Hostel, Razia was informed that Mahek behaved like a 5th grader during her intake interview there. With the help of the institutions, we were very successful in bringing Mahek to Sidhpur. We see she is very happy and healthy there.
Current Update:
Recently, Kulsumben and Mahek’s father were distressed and crying as they were worried about Mahek since both were sick. Father is very ill and almost bedridden – he is losing hope that he will not survive.
They both wanted assurances that we would look after Mahek after they were gone. Nasreen assured them. We contacted Mahek, who wanted to look after her dad and grandma in their last days.
At this time, at her young age, 14 yo Mahek almost became a caregiver to her extended family while attending school. However, her Kaka and Kaki helped us to decide to hire a caregiver so that Mahek can continue with her studies, as that is our long-term educational goal.
Let’s pray that Mahek continues to be courageous and maintains her studies.
