Ramadan Aid Baskets Bring a Smile to Iraqi Faces

By Ahmed Fathy & Amr Salaheddin

Mosul, October 7, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) - A call by famed da`i (Muslim preacher) Amr Khaled for providing food for the needy during the holy fasting month of Ramadan has had a positive response in a number of Arab states with Iraq on top of an eight-member list.

Iraqi charities have put the call into effect and collected thousands of "Ramadan bags" for the poor in the war-torn country.

"Once we were informed of the initiative, we contacted the organizers and Life Makers society in Cairo to join the project," head of the Iraq’s Students and Youths Union Yahia Eid Mahjoub told IslamOnline.net on Thursday, October 6, referring to Khaled's charity in the Egyptian capital.

"Our main objective is to collect one million baskets of food stuffs and medicines for the needy in Iraq, who are in multitudes."

Khaled's "Ramadan basket" project is aimed at gathering one million aid bags enough to feed almost five million people in eight Arab countries; namely Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia starting early in August 2005 and ending late in October 2005.

“Another objective for us is to cherish fraternity and remove sectarian tensions in Iraq," added Mahjoub, saying all Iraqis irrespective of their ethnicity were getting the aid.

He went on: "We have received donations from various charity groups topped by the Sunni Waqfs and the Two Rivers Charity in addition to mosques in the northern city of Mosul, which started receiving donations from the faithful."

Sheikh Ammar, the imam of Ahmad Ismail Mosque in Mosul, told IOL that donations boxes were placed in mosques and imams called for donations in their sermons in a bid to render the project a success.

“The response was so encouraging and showed the mettle of generous Iraqis," said Ammar, adding that surprisingly most of the donations came from the low-income brackets rather than businessmen and the well-to-do.

Successful

The project's coordinator in Cairo, who spoke to IOL on condition of anonymity, said: 'It was a marvelous thing to hear from Baghdad the project was progressing steadily with individuals and charities participation."

"Some 6,000 bags have been collected in Iraq so far, a number that was not expected in a chaos-marred and war-ravaged country," she said.

She said the initiative was a great success all in all.

"In Egypt, some 500,000 have been collected and in Saudi Arabia 100, 000," she said.

Statistics from other countries participating in the initiative will be received soon, she maintained.