I never dreamt of ever being involved in such a venture considering my own struggles growing up as a young teen in London, England with bare minimums of life compared to my affluent school friends.

During one of the harshest winters in England for almost a hundred years I contracted pneumonia because I lacked even the basics necessary for survival in the cold weather. With no relatives to care for me, I was cared for by a family from India. This planted the seed in me that would eventually grow to be Shezan Childeren's Trust.

Married at a young age - twenty years old - to a dedicated, loving and caring wife who financed me throughout my further education, three children and a business idea we emigrated to Florida, USA.
My business was established and during this period my only son - Shezan - at the tender age of nineteen drowned at the intra-coastal waters of Boca Raton, Palm-Beach, Florida.

This tragedy made me so angry with God and all the peripheral traditions that accompany faith-based religion, I decided for a brief moment to re-evaluate my faith.
Fortunately, I was able to deal with this tragedy only because of my faith in God and so over the years funded various religious based organisations from the funds I would have spent on Shezan.
Today there is a prayer hall and auditorium in Pembroke Pines, Florida funded from this fund and named after him.

Twelve years later I was still not psychologically normal or overcame this loss and it was during a visit to India I found the one thing that made me feel fully satisfied.

I was staying in Mumbai, India at a  five-star hotel overlooking the ocean and decided to take a stroll along the waterfront. Here there were many children in dirty and torn clothing begging and I decided to offer some money to them, suddenly the amount of children just expanded. From where they came I do not know but they all appeared for the money. However, there was one little girl, perhaps about five years old, with dark piercing eyes, scantily dressed, dirty long skirt and no top. She just stared at me but will not extend  her hand to take the money. Although I increased the amount I was offering she did not put out her hands to accept the money - she just stared at me with those 'black piercing eyes'.

That look, that stare, that scene at the waterfront haunted me and I could not eat or sleep at my 'royal residence'. I thought perhaps the message she was trying to tell me " Sir, I do not need your few rupees, what I need is hope - and education, a place to live and a future. This memory stayed with me. During a subsequent visit to India I donated funds to an Orphan Home only to find later that the person to whom this money was given was no longer there and no records of these funds. Right at that moment I decided to follow my instinct and build my own 'home' for the orphans.

Fortunately, I met with a young man - my partner- Vincent in Hyderabad, India, some two hours drive in rural India. An ardent admirer of Mother Theresa, Vincent had started a "home" for nine boys between the ages of five and eleven.

I have joined forces with him and merged our organisations -  Shezan Children-Trust and the Living Bread- to serve humanity with an emphasis on the orphans.

Yours Respectfully,

Azad Ali
President
Shezan Children-Trust.