Student's 10-mile walk to aid Indian education project

AN Edinburgh student who was rescued from poverty in India is set to take part in a charity walk to raise funds for the orphanage and school that changed his life.

Badar Azim, 22, is studying for a BA in hospitality management at Edinburgh Napier University thanks to a sponsorship scheme with St Mary's Orphanage and Day School in Kolkata, which has links with the university.

Badar, who was born in one of the most deprived areas of Kolkata, will graduate this June, but without the scheme, his family couldn't have afforded to support him through university.

To show his appreciation to the charity, he is taking part in a sponsored ten-mile charity walk from Strathyre to Callander tomorrow with at least 40 other Napier students.

Badar lived with his parents and two younger brothers in a small rented house with just one room in Kolkata until moving to Edinburgh to finish his degree in September last year.

His father, Mohammed Rahim, a welder, was unable to pay for his son to obtain a decent standard of education in India.

St Mary's Orphanage and Day School offered Badar a place to study - free of charge - before raising funds for him to complete the first two years of his degree.

Badar said: "The charity first financed my time at the International Institute of Hotel Management College in Kolkata, which has an affinity with Edinburgh Napier, and then enabled me to come to Edinburgh and complete my studies - something others in India can only dream of.

"The orphanage literally helps transform the lives of hundreds of children each year.

"If I didn't go to St Mary's, I would have been working somewhere on the streets of Kolkata. It would have been very difficult to get a job in India because unless you have got a good degree, you will not get a good job and good salary."

Badar, who lives in student accommodation in Tollcross, added: "The living conditions where I am at the moment are very different from what I lived like in India. We only had one bed in our house in India so my younger brothers and mother used to be in the bed, and my father and I used to sleep on the ground."

Jim McGuinness, Badar's lecturer at St Mary's, helped raise thousands of pounds in sponsorship for him to complete his studies at Napier.

The university's Business School has also agreed to fund two annual scholarships for St Mary's students.

Napier lecturer Pauline Gordon, who organised the walk and is the university programme leader for the India partnership, said: "This will change Badar's family's life now because even in a couple of years when his visa runs out and he has to go back to India, he's still going to get a job in one of the top hotels because he's had a very good education."

The walk will get under way at 10.30am tomorrow. Children at St Mary's will also take part in a walk in Kolkata at the same time to show their appreciation.

Badar said: "The charity really has turned my life around. It's all because of St Mary's that I am what I am today."