AlFitrah foundation started a food bank this week at the Somali Refugee Centre. The area was chosen for its accessibility to many refugee communities. We are still learning the best way to do this but this first week Alhamdulillah we helped 99 families from 10 countries with grocery supplies.
People also donated items , even the Shopee supplier gave the cool box for free when he found out we were a food bank ! so we now can stock chicken and fish to give away. #kitajagakita
The Covid pandemic has affected us all greatly. Our office has had to close for the past month due to the higher risk of our visually-impaired staff travelling on public transport. However we have been reaching out to the VIPs( visually impaired people) in our community through food aid.
We also extended a hand to the poor in Kelantan who are in remote areas as they may be overlooked in food distribution programs.
Some blind people have asked us at AlFitrah Foundation Braille Quran Initiative for a Braille book of daily du'as in Arabic with English translation. Making du'a is an important part of a Muslim's life . Inshaa Allah I can continue with Abdul Majid online after this and we can finish this within a month.
This morning he updated me on the progress of a visually impaired lady in New York who learnt to read Arabic Braille with the Quraanic primer we posted to her. She is now learning to read Juz 30 of the Quran with him on WhatsApp which she records to revise. Alhamdulillah. Please make dua for all of us !
These are difficult times and for refugee families who don't have a safety net of social security benefits or access to free health and education, they are hit harder. AlFitrah foundation has started a grocery voucher program that enables 50 refugee families in the most dire circumstances to purchase the groceries they need . An analysis of the receipts show the different requirements of each family: a young Somalian mother uses her vouchers to buy babymilk and rusks, a Yemeni single mum buys adult diapers for her aged mother and chickens for her family's dinner, a Palestinian father buys oranges, pears and apples for his children.
Today is World Braille Day where we celebrate awareness of the importance of braille as a means of communication in the full realization of the human rights for blind and visually impaired people.
At AlFitrah Foundation Braille Quran Initiative we gave Braille books and pocket Braille sets today to Tina and Tika two visually impaired girls who work next to our office, and Abian and his wife Rashidah, and Ismail who is planning to go for his umrah and wanted the guide to Haj and Umrah in Braille.