Meet Mahdi, a boy orphaned aged just six months old whose schooling journey was enabled by the LFT’s education program

Mahdi is now 9, is an orphaned child continuing his school education at a private school in Kabul.

He was left orphaned when he was only six months old as his mother died of a sickness. Soon after, Mahdi, like many other children in the country, tragically lost his father in the midst of war and conflict.

“I realised I was orphaned when I became 4 years old. Knowing this extremely shocked me and sort of darkened my life as I discovered the eternal absence of my parents in my life,” said Mahdi.

“It especially hurt me when I saw others hanging with their parents but I had none of them and felt completely lonely.”

Currently, Mahdi is living with his grandmother and his aunts who have been giving him care and brought him up since his infanthood in the face of lots of adversities and troubles.

They looked after Mahdi, managing to raise him to school age and finally sending him to school.

Presently, Mahdi is enrolled in the second school grade at a school where the Lady Fatemah Trust has been supporting 50 other orphaned children’s educations since early 2022.

“It is the second year that Mahdi is studying at the school with the precious support of LFT. Thanks to this support which has enabled him to make huge improvements in his school lessons while gaining good life and interaction skills as well as confidence,” Atefa, his aunt explained.

“His progress is deeply heartening and now he is the top student in his class. This opportunity has made him tremendously happy, positive, enthusiastic, and hopeful for his future,” she further stipulated.

Hawa Gul, his grandmother said: “The LFT’s education programme helped us take Mahdi from the street to school in the first place and keep him in school in the second place.”

“Mahdi was just a stubborn boy before starting school but now he is a smart and disciplined boy. Every morning he wakes up early, applies hygiene, wears his school uniform, and leaves home for school very enthusiastically. We owe all these progressive changes to LFT which made it possible,” she remarked referring to the programme effectiveness for him.

“Besides its education programme, we have also benefitted from the LFT’s food assistance and mental well-being support which have helped put food on the table in times of grave food shortage and better our mental health condition through information conveyed to us,” both Hawa Gul and Atefa concluded while expressing their thanks to the LFT for all it does to help them and those alike.