It’s all hands on deck this morning as volunteers from across the city lend a hand to help the Al Imdaad Foundation pack humanitarian goods destined for the displaced Rohingya. The Al-Imdaad Foundation launched a national collection drive across most major towns and cities in South Africa three weeks ago to fill shipping containers with aid and with the support of the Muslim Judicial Council and Darul Islam Relief Fund, the response was overwhelming. This morning, boxes are being packed at Goolhurst Islamic Society where the madrassa hall was opened to scores of volunteers for preparation.
“We are loading the boxes and will be transferring all the boxes to Islamia College where it will be loaded into three large containers. Initially, we had a fear that we would not even be able to fill one container, but alhamdililah, we have surpassed that!” said Maulana Yusuf Rajah, the coordinator for Al Imdaad in the Western Cape.
More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since August, following a military crackdown against the Muslim-majority nation, labeled by the UN as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. The Rohingya were forced to flee to neighboring Bangladesh due to the scourge of killings, rape and arson at the hands of soldiers and Buddhist mobs.
The Al Imdaad Foundation’s humanitarian collection was only for blankets, baby blankets, abayas, scarves and burqahs to clothe the thousands of homeless Rohingya, many of them who fled with only the clothes on their backs. Rajah said they collected over 15 000 blankets, which they did not expect.
“Alhamdullilah, Allah has made the hearts of our community soft. There were people that would call to say they only have one or two scarves, and we asked them to donate it no matter how small. We believe this has made the difference in filling these containers.”
The humanitarian project was a well-coordinated effort which involved more than 30 masajid for collection points, as far as Mitchell’s Plain, Paarl and Worcester.
The Cape Town container will depart on Sunday and will only be shipped to Bangladesh by the 21 November.
“We would like to thank the Goolhurst Islamic society and all the masajid who came on board as collection points.”
Volunteers are welcome to assist with the packing of the boxes until Thuhr today. VOC
