IT expert takes £30,000 pay cut to run the charity that rescued him from an orphanage where he was left aged five by his poverty-stricken mum

An IT expert who took a £30,000 pay cut to run the charity that rescued him from a Lebanese orphanage and gave him a new life in the UK now takes pride in giving street children and young people at risk around the world a chance.

Ahmad Ayoubi’s fortunes changed in 1994 when he was 14 and a kind schoolteacher, David Spurdle, now 77, offered him a home with his family in Hornchurch, Essex, where he thrived – going on to gain a first-class degree in computer science.

And when Ahmad, 42, who now lives with his wife Melinda, 40, a corporate lawyer, and their girls, Laila, seven and Sophia, four, in Brentwood, Essex, saw David – who he calls his “dad” – needed help to run Stand By Me, the charity he founded, he stepped in.

Taking a massive salary reduction, in 2018, he became director of Stand By Me, which works in eight countries around the world giving over 4,000 street children the chance of a loving home, a good education and caring sponsors, saying: “My story is miraculous because somebody – David – stepped in. He went out of his comfort zone and made a difference.

“But everyone can do their bit – however small – to help.”

David first became aware of the plight of Ahmad and other boys in the Lebanese orphanage that had become his home in the 1980s, when he visited the war ravaged country.

A single mum living in poverty, Ahmad’s mother had felt she had no choice but to take her son there in 1985 when he was only five and genuinely felt she was doing her best for him.

One of 50 boys there whose families could not provide for them, he said: “I remember every detail of that day when she took me there. I even remember the smells.

“My mother crouched down to explain that staying at the children’s home would give me my best chance of an education and a future, but all I could think about was being parted from her and my four older siblings.”

He also clearly remembers refusing to let go of a bag of fruit he had been given, even when an older bully tried to commandeer it, as he began a nine year stay at the home.

From the outset, he found it challenging and unfriendly, as he was told to wash the dishes, despite being too small to reach the sink without standing on a chair.

He said: “It took me two hours to wash them all!”

He also remembers abuse and bullying at the site and learning to stand up for himself to survive.

He said: “It was a very dark place.”

At least he was lucky enough to have a British sponsor, in the form of David, who sent him money for his care.

And, when he turned 14, David rescued him.

Ahmad, who now understands why his Muslim mother took him to the orphanage in the Christian quarter of Beirut after leaving their father, who she had married at 14 and who he says was abusive, said: “She could not find work because of her religion.

“She would bake bread to sell on the streets and by the time I went to the orphanage, all my siblings had been forced to leave school to help her to try and make enough money for us to eat.”

He added: “My mother had been dealt a bad hand and I have never resented her for the decision to put me in the orphanage, even though it was a bad place.

“She was doing what she thought was best for me and, when I told her I was leaving for England, I think she felt she’d been right to make that decision.”

Arriving in England with a stolen book on history and very little else on a wintry October day, despite the opportunities being offered, Ahmad found adapting tough.

He said: “I hated school and didn’t do very well. I hated the weather; my English wasn’t good, and I got into a lot of fights, because if I’d learned one thing in that orphanage it was how to stand up for myself.

“This is a great country, but it wasn’t easy to come and live here because, back then, people were often not very friendly if you came from another culture, so school was a real struggle and I had to repeat a year.”

But soon Ahmad was thriving and went on to gain a first-class university degree in computer science, before going into corporate banking.

When he reached 28, though, he became increasingly concerned about how hard David was working and, after helping him out at the charity, he quit his high flying job to join him as director of Stand By Me.

He said: “The charity started in the shed at the bottom of David’s garden. He has always been a visionary and would think nothing of adopting 800 kids in one go.

“To all intents and purposes, he is my dad and we are now working in eight different countries with 22 staff in the UK and 600 working around the world.”

He added: “The issues we deal with depend on the country we’re working in.

“In Myanmar, for example, there is poverty due to civil war, in Ethiopia poverty and HIV are the issues and in Colombia there is a lot of abuse.”

And Ahmad is extremely proud of the fact the charity spends less than 10 per cent of donations on administration and that it aims for at least 500 of the 4,300 children it sponsors to go to university in the next three years.

He said: “Everything that I do has been shaped by my experiences as a child, but there are hundreds of stories like mine.

“We offer ‘deep care’ to the kids we take off the streets.

“They live in ‘villages’ where they have a home with people who care about their welfare and where they can get an education and know that they matter to someone – both to the people looking after them and to their sponsors.”

He added: “And we don’t just care for the children. We also take care of the whole family when one of the children joins us.”

Ahmad, who says his own childhood home had “more holes than walls” because of the bombings at that time, is keen for people to realise they can make a difference to children growing up in difficult places.

He said: “People look at these issues overseas and just don’t know where to start to help. They can feel overwhelmed and believe they can’t make a difference, but anyone can change a child’s life.”

He added: “And the truth is, you can do your bit too, just by loving a child who also needs to know that they matter.”

Stand By Me now has over 4,000 sponsors who each support a child who has been taken off the streets and given a safe home and a chance of education. It costs just £23 a month to become a sponsor. For more details visit, www.standby.me/sponsor