Saturday, September 29, 2007

Ramadan in Kampala- Reflections Ramadan 17

A friend from Kampala City, Uganda, wrote to me:

As for the Ramadhan mood, muslims here are in high Ramadhan mood,they also fill the mosques to capacity, muslims who have the means try to help those in need by way of providing Iftar to the mosques where it is served but in most cases, a person is given juice/water and a banana and in cases where food is served, it's mostly the kids and those in dire need who eat it because it's usually not enough, in most cases it's little and you have to spend time lining for it.

So for people who have the means, they just come for magrib prayers and immediately after prayers, they leave the mosques to go and break their fast.

There are very few muslims these ends who invite the needy to go and break their fast from their homes, in other words there are very many muslims these ends who don't have enough to take them through Ramadhan and there are very few muslims who have the means to help them.

I always talk about how we live in a global world where everything is possible. Yet, despite being "connected", we still go through Ramadan after Ramadan, where millions don't have food for their iftars, or their suhoors. This Ramadan have you made it possible for a family you don't know and never met, to have a proper iftar? And I'm not talking about doing this through relief agencies or NGOs, but picking up a real person's email address on the internet, finding out about their Muslim community and then sending them money through Western Union or any other means. When you do it once, you'll also realise how simple it is to send money to anywhere, same day.

2 comments:

Hafsa said...

sometimes you aren't sure whether you can trust an organization. I like the idea of emailing a friend you know.

Humairah Irfan said...

Actually, I don't know much about this friend. I've never talked to him, only exchanged emails. The only thing we had in common was that we're both IslamOnline volunteers. It's actually easier to trust an organisation, but then, you can't form that personal connection. As in, you can sponsor an orphan, but it's not the same as being in touch with an orphan's guardian- if you know what I mean.
At the same time, people should be more careful than me when emailing a stranger :) In the case of this friend, I did all the reference checks I possible could. lol.. I've actually spoken with his mom :D