This is Mahabub (Dubai, May 10th, 2014)
A hard working young man from Chittagong
Meet Mahabub. Mahabub is a young man from Chittagong in Bangladesh. He's also the guy who I've been spending most of my time here in Dubai, while I work on a UX project for a local client. He's the only person I see and talk to everyday. When he comes to clean the hotel room I'm staying, he's always saying sorry when he has to ask me to lift up my laptop. He's shy, but speaks a fairly good English.
Like many other workers in Dubai, Mahabub lives in a labour camp in Al Quoz. Al Quoz is an industrial neighborhood of Dubai, where workers share space with large warehouses, cement factories, and logistics hubs. He says he has good roommates, and that his place is not too crowded, even though things could be better.
Mahabub has a younger sister and a younger brother. They are back in Chittagong, and he hasn't seen them for more than two years. He's planning to go back for good next year when his visa in Dubai expires. He says he had enough of here.
Mahabub works six days a week, every week, from 8am to 6pm. He has his off days on Sundays. He tells me that there isn't a specific busier day of the week, however sometimes things get busy during events, or when certain guests come in and trash the rooms (he did mention a nationality, which I vowed not to share with anyone).
I have a deep respect for hard-working people, and Mahabub is a perfect example of someone putting in his best effort in expectation of a brighter future. I couldn't help asking what his salary was, and he was kind enough to tell me: 1000AED, or around 200 euros per month. That's less than 7 euros a day.
So I decided to call all of you to join me on a little project: I have around 10 days left here in Dubai (I leave on May 21st), and I want to raise enough money to surprise Mahabub with a return trip to see his family in Bangladesh. That costs around 1400AED on flydubai, or close to 380 USD. So I've prepared a PayPal donation button to receive donations for him. If you donate, I will match the value of every single donation that comes in, up until we reach the value of the flight ticket. If we go beyond this target, I will hand him the ticket voucher plus the leftover cash.
So I'm asking you to click on the Donate button below and make your donation of any value.
If you need to contact me about this, just send an email to andre@mcnto.com or on Twitter at @andregoiano and I will reply to you straight back. I thank you in advance for your commitment. One does what is in his or her power to do.
Updates:
May 10th, 2014 — All donations will be refunded if we don't reach the final goal.
May 10th, 2014 — 10 days to go.
May 10th, 2014 — We have 7 confirmed donors, and 44.5% completion already!
May 11th, 2014 — 9 days to do, 8 donors, 68% completion.
May 12th, 2014 — In less than a couple of days, we have reached our ticket goal already. We gathered 405USD so far. Will be posting a follow-up soon about when and how I will hand it out to him. Thank you all.