During a recent trip to India, me and my family went to Hampi where we met Ali Baber, (his tourist name), a 32 year old the tuk tuk driver who we had as our guide for our stay there. At first we were greeted by an energetic, happy driver which quickly changed. Hearing Ali's story broke our hearts and made us realise how lucky we are to be living our lives.

Ali was brought up as head of the family without a father and did not go to school as he had to go out to work at 10 years old. Ali cannot read or write and so he has never been able to find a well paying job, he has done manual labour from a young age. Ali lives is in Hampi in India which is a beautiful but very remote area in India, where he lives in a little village with his family who he has to provide for. Ali led a very religious life for years in the hope that his situation would change.

Ali had to borrow money from a local lender as one of his family members got ill and needed to go to hospital. As he was not able to pay it back within one month, more money accrued on it each month. Ali's job is seasonal and so he is not able to work for 6 months of the year when there are no tourists. He had to sell his tuk tuk to the loan shark and he now loans it back off of them everyday, they have gone to his house and taken all of his possessions.

Whilst we were driving around with him, his loan shark found him and made him stop his tuk tuk. He slapped him around his head, made us get out of the tuk tuk and went through all of his pockets. He is literally in a hopeless situation and no one deserves to live life like this.

When I left, I gave Ali my contact details in case he is ever in trouble. He cannot read or write, nor does he have a phone, but today he contacted me through a friend to tell me that his tuk tuk has been taken by the loan shark and he has no way of working anymore . Any little bit of money could help him to get himself out of this terrible situation.