Source: http://www.11alive.com/news/student-project-changes-mans-life/112233011
ATLANTA -- Sometimes, limits and barriers only exist if we let them.
Nizar Alibhai is a sophomore at the Atlanta International School -- with a class project he’s made his own.
"They call it a personal project,” Alibhai said. "I decided to help a homeless man and make a documentary.”
Nizar wanted to do more than help. He wanted to change someone's life.
It's what brought him to the Pleasantdale exit off Interstate 85, a place where those facing the hardest beg to survive.
"A lot of people said it was going to be too difficult or dangerous or like, 'Why would you want to do something like that?’” Alibhai said.
Nizar did not see barriers. He saw James.
"It was strange; he was dirty, un‐manicured -- he looked really skinny,” Alibhai said. "I couldn't imagine how he had survived for so long.”
Nizar and his dad approached James and learned about his time on the streets …
"There's not a book you can read,” James said. “You gotta experience it, and then you'll realize, 'Good God -- I don't want to live like this.”
Soon, he wouldn't have to.
"We took him that same day and took him to the hotel, the Northlake Inn and that's when everything started,” Alibhai said.
Nizar had, before he met James, raised enough money to get James an extended stay at a nearby hotel.
The stay began with James' first time in a long time flopping on a bed.
"It feels good, man,” James said after trying out the bed. "It felt so good.”
James Porter has lived nearly six decades. He's been homeless for two years.
"I swear, it was so many days I slept on that pavement,” he said.
In that time, he has lost more than a roof. He said he went more than six months since without seeing his mother.
“She wants to see me get like this and stay like this -- that's all she asked for,” James said.
In the past few weeks James has received a makeover, a cell phone, and new clothes. Nizar even found him -- after a long search -- a job working security. It’s a job that James has maintained.
"A lot of them found out he was homeless and were like, 'Oh, we don't want to be associated with that,’” Nizar said. "We say, 'Oh, they're lazy; they can just get a job.' But in order to get a job, you need documents, ID, and a Social Security number…they leave this stuff behind. They basically start out with nothing."
James now has a beginning. It hit him as he returns to that exit on Pleasantdale. Not to beg, but to reflect.
"I cried, man -- real tears, man, and I begged God I wanted to change, man,’ James said. “I didn't want to live like this. I just didn't want to live like this no more in my life, man.”
Soon, James will have earned enough money to get a permanent apartment.
This past Easter Sunday, Nizar removed one more barrier:
"I got in contact with his mom,” Nizar said.
Dorothy Porter had waited nearly a year to see her son.
In that moment, the limits and barriers felt removed ... all because a student with a class project never obeyed his own.
"I told him, 'I'm here for you. And I will always be here for you,’” Nizar said.
"It means a lot to me in my heart,” James said. “They don't know me from a can of paint, but they trust me enough to help me.”