Warangal: “Extending service to the needy is what makes my day; awards and applause subdue the anxiety and restore my confidence,” says Yakub Bee, the founder of Sahrudaya Old Age Home in Hanamkonda.
Yakub Bee and her husband Mahboob Ali have opened their home for elderly homeless and destitute people since 2007. Recognising her services, the World Peace Festival Society International (WPFSI) has conferred on her the Shanthi Dhootha award.
Yakub Bee lavishes love and affection on her charges and recognises no religious or social barriers. She looks after the food and medical needs of her charges and when it was required even performed the funeral rites of a Hindu man when her husband was not there to do it.
“Most of the people living in our home have been abandoned by their children. Some of them have no memory of their whereabouts. Such people deserve to be cared for. There is no human being in this world who does not deserve to be loved. It gives me immense satisfaction to be able to help such people,” says the compassionate lady.
Yakub Bee, who hails from Ellanda village in Wardhannapet mandal, used to work as a tailor. Her husband Mahboob Ali used to do petty jobs. Mahboob was inspired by a rickshaw-puller who ran an old age home in Khalsa in Amritsar.
“Starting from two persons in 2007, we now provide shelter to 100 people,” says Mr Ali. The WPFSI, founded in 1997, is based in Warangal. Its aim is to celebrate and encourage the pluralistic character of the Indian nation. People’s poet Kaloji Narayana Rao and Telangana ideologue, the late K. Jayashankar, have been involved in the formation of this society.
Yakub Bee will receive the award along with film maker Dr K. Vishwanath and historian Dr Lingala Pandu Ranga Reddy in Warangal on Tuesday.
