Sayid Abdullaev was born in Kyrgyzstan, to a father who was a shepherd and a mother who worked long hours at a food truck to support her family. Sayid and his family were Uyghurs, an ethnic minority persecuted throughout Eastern and Central Asia. 

After a group of Peace Corps volunteers taught Sayid English, the U.S. State Department arranged for him to come to the United States in 2007, where he was placed with a host family in Arizona. Since he had been 10 years old, Sayid had volunteered to help children in need. At his new school in the United States, he met many other students who were refugees, too, from many different places, from many different cultures and belief systems. "What's the best way to get to know each other?", he thought.

Sayid found a non-profit organization called Youth for Peace to conduct cultural presentations at schools, churches, community centers, and local organizations, where they talked about their cultures, religions, and traditions. They shared foods and dances from their native countries and organized community service projects and mentoring programs, raising more than $100,000. Sayid also joined another project called Kids for Kids, where he helped children with disabilities gain opportunities for social entrepreneurship, education, and leadership. 

He recently co-founded yet another non-profit organization called Asylum Connect, as a resource for LGBTQ youth seeking asylum in the United States.

Sayid currently serves as the United Religions Initiative Youth Representative to the United Nations, and he regularly gives speeches at their headquarters in New York City and around the world. His various humanitarian projects have taken him to countries including Thailand, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, France, Germany, and Switzerland, among many others.