Who is Hussain celebrates ten years of helping donate back to school supplies for CPS students

CHICAGO (WGN) — At Randolph Elementary School in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, there is a lesson being learned on caring for others, in the form of school supplies.

For the 10th year in a row, the group, Who is Hussain, gave back to the South Side community with back-to-school backpacks for Chicago Public School students.

“We are putting in notebooks, folders, gluesticks, pencil pouches, watercolor crayons [and] markers,” Narjis Hussain said.

Volunteers with the organization said they are inspired by a seventh century leader named Hussain that sacrificed his life in the service of others.

“He died doing what he thought was right and we use his name to inspire us to do good in our everyday communities,” Hussain said.

WGN-TV first introduced viewers to the organization in 2018. At the time, they had a much smaller budget and donated school supplies to just a few hundred kids in the city. But this year, they’ve far excited that number.

“We’re giving out 2,000 backpacks,” Syed Mohamed Bilgrami said. “it is a 100% donor-based organization. A nonprofit. So we have a lot of donors who are helping us support the mission year.”

Hussain said the backpacks will be picked up by about ten different schools and distributed among their students.

“Each bag cost a minimum of $20, which for a lot of families, especially in this day and age in this economy,” Hussain said. “It’s really hard when you factor in the factor of multiple kids going to school at the same time we really that this is such a great way to get back to those students and make sure that they’re prepared for the school year.”

More info on Who is Hussain can be found on their Instagram account.