'Hunger has no religion': Man feeds poor for 3,300 consecutive days

Hyderabad: The 32-year-old Mohammed Shujathullah has been a messiah for the hungry people in the city for almost nine years now. Shujath, who has been feeding breakfast to the poor at Niloufer Hospital, has completed 3,300 days of its service to the needy.

In 2016, Shujath formally started distributing food under the Humanity First Foundation, the NGO he founded with the phrase, ‘Bhook ka koi mazhabnahihein’ (‘Hunger has no religion’). Since then, he has been providing a breakfast of upma and chutney to 1,000 people every day at Koti Maternity Hospital, Niloufer Hospital, and NIMS Hospital.

He can be spotted at the Koti Maternity Hospital at 7:30 am, between 7:45 am and 8:00 am at Niloufer Hospital, and from 8:15 am to 8:30 am at NIMS Hospital.

Shujath serves upma because it can be easily cooked and served. “Cooked with pure-ghee, a 25-kg of upma rawa is distributed along with chutney at all these hospitals by 9:00 am in the morning among one thousand people,” said Shujathullah.

“Breakfast is an important meal for any individual and if someone gets this meal at a proper time he will be able to focus on other things and lunch would not be any big deal, as the day has already started with something in the stomach,” he explained.

“It has been 3,300 days since I began this initiative and has not missed even a single day. Despite several challenges, I continued to serve breakfast,” said Shujath. He sincerely thanked his family, friends, generous donors, and supporters for their prayers and support in this journey.

He explained that at these state-run hospitals, the patients come from different districts, and each patient comes with three or four people who live on the roadside.

“If they can get free food, they can use the money spent on food for the other medical expenses,” he added. He noted that he has completed eight years of serving breakfast at Koti Maternity and six years at NIMS Punjagutta hospitals.