From waking up in the morning to travelling more than 25 kilometres to sell his basket of oranges and returning to his home. This was the daily schedule of Hajabba. who lived in Harekela , a village near Manglore .Life would not have been so special if he had not thought of doing something with this system of education. Hajabba found out that the children from his village had to travel long distance to attend school and this is what inspired him to start thinking of a school in his very own village.
Yes, of course! This dream was beyond his means. He earned just enough to meet his both ends meet. But as the saying goes , where there’s a will there’s a way! Hajabba determined to somehow manage a lower primary government school initially. He started off with few children making them space for studying in a mosque. Since then he moved from door to door of the higher government officials making requests to help him to set up a school.
All his hard work paid off in 2001 when a primary school was sanctioned in Newpadupu, a nearby place. Since then the school has seen no downfall. With students of the villages regularly attending the school, it grew to secondary and then the high school level. There are around 250 students attending this school now.
Hajabba has been selling oranges for about 30 years and since last 15 years he has saved each penny for the development of this institution. His hard work has earned the school various sponsorships apart from the regular government aid. Hajabba came into limelight when CNN-IBN chose him for their “Real Hero Awards”. The 5 lakh rupees award money he received has also been deposited for the improvement of the infrastructure. Having achieved his dreams, he didn’t stop there. Now he is working to establish a College and university making the road of education for the poorest of the poor much smoother!
