Aqil through a heart-warming project called ‘One Well 700 Lives’, won a scholarship to an Ivy League college thanks to a contest run by Just Falafel.
At the surface of it, not much distinguishes teenager Aqil Rashid from others his age born and brought up in Dubai.
His grandfather moved to the UAE from Pakistan in the early 70s and ran a shop on Shaikh Zayed Road — general trading. Aqil, now completely immersed in the UAE culture, calls himself a “non-local local”, switching seamlessly from Americanised English to ‘haan-ji’-pepperd Urdu. T-shirt wearing Aqil says it used to drive his grandfather crazy when he would bury his chin and nose into the neck of round-neck tees “but then I started wearing V-necks so it wasn’t a problem.”
via Dubai teen wins scholarship after building wells in Afghanistan villages – Khaleej Times.
http://www.thenational.ae/uae/education/dubai-teen-wins-full-scholarship-to-brown-university
Ismailimail 