Hasmukh: The philanthropist who had a big heart for children with special needs

By Winnie Atieno

In 2006, industrialist and philanthropist, Mr Hasmukh Patel, fondly nicknamed ‘Hasu’, came across a photo of a dilapidated mud school in Mtwapa, Kilifi County. The shanty school lacked sanitation facilities. It had no roof either, and neither did it have water. 

Hasu, the owner of Mombasa Cement, was touched. He soon visited the school with a contractor to assess the situation.

Weeks later when schools were closed, he camped at the site with the contractors he had hired to rebuild the school as fast as possible. Work progressed 24 hours a day.

“There was no electricity, so we were all using our vehicles as torches to light up the site. The boss wanted to ensure the construction was completed by the time schools reopened so that children would learn in a safe environment,” recalled Mombasa Cement Human Resource Manager, Mohamed Akram.

Hasu ensured that the school's facilities, especially the classrooms, were rebuilt within 40 days. “When schools opened, the pupils, teachers and staff were shocked to see a refurbished modern learning institution built of concrete and steel,” Mr Akram had said during an interview with Nation at the company’s offices in Jomvu, sometime back.

Later, Hasu built a secondary school. He also built a vocational training institution to empower the youth in Mtwapa and improve transition rates from primary to secondary and tertiary levels.

Thereafter, he concentrated his efforts on his favourite social project – the Sahajanand Special Mixed Day and Boarding School – which he built and presently houses 1,700 special needs learners, including those with cerebral palsy, mental illness, microcephalus, and sight or hearing impairment. 

According to his personal assistant Mohammed Amir, Hasu had a special heart for children with medical and physical challenges, which is how he expanded support for them from an initial 200 to the present 1,700.

In addition to education, the support includes “food, clothing, health and wellbeing,” according to Mr Amir.

Talking about this previously himself during an interview, Hasu had told Nation that his vision for the facility, which is located within Mtwapa Educational Institute, was to see to it that special needs students attained adequate craft course and life skills to make them independent in adulthood.

“It is the largest special needs school in Africa. We have 1,700 vulnerable children with special needs, more than 125 TSC teachers, and 150 caretakers. It’s a boarding school, joined with a secondary and primary school and are all run by the state but funded by our boss, Mr Patel,” Mr Amir had pointed out earlier.

Hasu would also provide meals for all the learners in the school, from breakfast to lunch and dinner.

He would visit the special needs section four times a week to check on the well-being of the learners, whom he fondly referred to as “God’s angels”.

Inscribed on the gate of the special needs school is a mantra that Hasu lived by: “The true path to heaven is by giving service to these angels of God, that is the children of Sahajanand”.

Hasu was laid to rest on September 1, 2024, following his demise on August 29 after a brief illness.

Through his various philanthropic initiatives, he touched many Kenyans to the core, as highlighted in the numerous tributes carried in this special supplement.

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