 Bilaal Rajan spent part of last summer in Tanzania, Africa. He used proceeds from charitable donations to help fund the Hands for Help project — a nursery school for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. STAFF PHOTO/BILL ROBERTS |
Jun 17, 2008 09:39 AM – By: Patrick Mangion, Staff Writer
Don’t let Bilaal Rajan’s diminutive stature fool you.
Still shy of his 12th birthday, he is described as articulate, cerebral, driven and passionate by those who know him best.
Since he was a young boy, the academic standout at St. Andrew’s College has been lifting children from poverty and smashing through barriers.
It all started with a rhetorical question, asked with the idealism and naivity of youth.
“Why shouldn’t children in other parts of the world have what we have here in Canada and what we often take for granted?” he wondered.
His philanthropic zeal was sealed when he was 8.
He had just finished reading a news story outlining the plight of Haitians struck by natural disaster.
A photograph of a crying child filled him with compassion and the urge to help.
But his altruism can be traced back further to when he was just four, when he sold clementines door-to-door and gave the proceeds to Indian earthquake victims.
When he talks about the many charitable causes he has led, the frantic pace of his words urges anyone listening to keep up.
Complete at the source: YorkRegion.com
Ismailimail 
CONGRATULATIONS.
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