Ridan is 14 years old and has a salary he could very well spend on himself.
He lives in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, a country where getting food every day is not something to take for granted. And yet, Ridan Al-Mashouly made a decision few adults would dare to stick with: to spend his own money regularly feeding a homeless elderly man with special needs.
This isn’t a one-time gesture or a photo for social media. According to descriptions of his story circulating online, he does it consistently, like someone keeping a silent promise.
The elderly man has no one to care for him. Ridan, at an age when others are barely thinking about video games or sneakers, became that person.
His story spread in 2020 and made it into lists of the most heartwarming things of that year, amid so many grim headlines.
Perhaps that’s why it stayed in so many people’s memories: because the greatest generosity doesn’t always come from those who have the most, but from those who choose to see someone everyone else has stopped seeing.