An undergraduate student who is able to pursue math honours because of a scholarship is going around homes at his village in South 24-Parganas providing relief to families left homeless by Cyclone Amphan.

Ajizul Halder, 21, was on the verge of giving up after Madhyamik because his father, a rickshaw-van puller, could not further afford his son’s education.

But Ajizul persisted, scored 83 per cent in aggregate in Madhyamik and later got a scholarship to partly fund his college education. He is now the first boy from his village of 200 families to go to college.

Ajizul’s house with a thatched roof at Purba Ranaghata village, in Mathurapur block, suffered severe damage in the cyclone. But that has not deterred him from arranging for food and shelter for other villagers

“I know what it means to not have money at home and what scarcity can do to a family. I haven’t been able to give a penny from my own pocket but I am arranging for funds so that these people can survive,” said Ajizul, a third-year student at Vidyasagar Metropolitan College in Calcutta.

Metro reported about Ajizul after he scored 81.6 per cent in higher secondary and bagged a scholarship that went a long way in funding his college education.

The college has helped him build a network in the city, which in turn helped him raise funds to buy tarpaulin and dry food for the storm-hit people. Thanks to his initiative, an organisation had run a community kitchen at his village for about a week after Amphan.

“I have reached out to people in my college and other colleges through social media. A few of my teachers chipped in, too,” said Ajizul.

On May 20, he had helped several families to relocate to a primary school in the village. “Many of them were not prepared. As their asbestos roofs had blown away, they took shelter at a school. During the lockdown, we were providing ration to the families of migrant labourers. Some of the ration was left and we used it to cook food,” said Ajizul.

Almost every day over the past two weeks, he would go around the village and survey the loss.

“Many of the affected are migrant labourers. Reeling from the twin blows of the lockdown and Amphan, they have no money left to rebuild their houses or buy food for their children,” said Ajizul.

His inspiration is Chandan Maity, the headmaster of Krishnachandrapur High School, in South 24-Parganas, where he studied plus-II. “We have always seen Sir come to the help of people. I will consider myself fortunate if I can replicate in a small way what he does on a large scale,” the youth said.

He has got a job as a gramin dak sevak.

“I will stay in Sonarpur, work from 9am to 1pm and take a train to Sealdah to attend college, which starts at 2.15pm. I will miss a few classes... but I need the money,” he said