Life taught him early on how to survive with nothing. When he was only five, Amin Sheikh left his slum to “settle” in an old train station. As his younger sister joined him soon, he had to learn to look after two people. Shortly thereafter, someone stole everything he had, he was raped, and his sister was kidnapped and forced into prostitution in the red light district. Like Amin, the UN estimates that some 150 million children are living out in the open in the world.
Helped by a taxi driver, his sister managed to escape from her captors. Once Amin understood the risk they were in, and with the help of a nun, he agreed to live in an orphanage where at least they would have their basic needs met. Amin says that although that shelter was not all that comfortable, he considered it “the home he had always dreamed of”. The nun had saved them from the likelihood of dying in the streets like many others: from illnesses or drugs or at the hands of gangs. A series of terrible circumstances brought Amin to the train station and to a life of hunger and suffering, but if all that had not happened, he would not be helping other children in the same situation now.
At present, Amin is a business man, as he defines himself. Aside from having started an orphanage, he dreams of opening a restaurant that will employ young men from his orphanage who, having become of age, are still out of work. This way, they won’t have to take to the streets again. He also wants the 'artists' to have place where the artists where they can show their work, and make a waiting list from which local business men can hire these young men.
To launch the project he has in mind, he says he will need around €300,000. Getting this amount implies going against the odds, but it just may be possible for someone like him. In fact, he thinks he has already found the solution by telling his life story in a book. Through the sales of his novel, he has already raised €40,000 and it looks like this figure will continue to grow. His autobiography “Life is life: I am thanks to you” has already been translated into five languages.
In early 2003, the person Amin worked for as a driver and whom he describes as the father he never had, decided to take him with him to Barcelona. During that trip, he began the process that, years later, moves everyone who comes to know his story. All the people he befriended in Barcelona encouraged him to write what he experienced during the hardest years of his life. Amin realized that he did not have to resign himself to his lot in life.
When not traveling, Amin shows tourists around Mumbai – the more authentic side of the city he knows so well. This activity, aside from bringing funds to his project, is also a way to meet foreigners who often offer to tell others about his work in their countries of origin. Says Amin: “If I survived after everything that has happened to me so far, I can also handle what the future holds for me”.
He knows he won’t change the world, but knows his small contribution can, along with many others, serve to create something greater, and the mere fact of improving one child’s life prospects thanks to his efforts, gives Amin a reason to carry on.
Source: elpais.com
