Aschille Clarke-Mendes
Feed The Needy, a programme spearheaded by the Revival of the Ummah (Rou), plans to spend the month of Ramadhan donating food and clothing to impoverished families across Trinidad.President of Rou, Abdel Hosein, said that he hopes to invite people throughout the nation to help out in the charitable drive. The programme involves a partnership with 15 mosques (so far), to help donate food and clothing.
Hosein believes that kindness transcends religion, as he hopes to get other religious communities on board."It would be great to get the Christian and the Hindu communities involved," he said.The programme has already attracted roughly 140 volunteers, 70 per cent of whom are young Trinidadians."The youths are attracted to this kind of programme because they see it as something positive to do," Hosein said.
Feed the Needy is also asking for donations via their Facebook page. Afterwards, they plan to drive to several communities within Trinidad to donate their items to deserving families.Last week, they went to Cedros, and reached over 80 families. Hosein said they were shocked to see the living conditions of some of these families.
Recalling a family that he met in Cedros, he said "one lady who had no legs was living in a house above water, being held up by bricks. Her children had no means for food."Maryam Hosein, Hosein's wife, explained that they decided to host the drive in the month of Ramadhan because it is a "time for reflection on how difficult it is to not have anything to eat."
Rou is an annual conference which started in 2013 with the purpose of hosting guest speakers the world over to educate youths on the values of unity and peace in Islam.The first conference, hosted in the Centre of Excellence, Macoya, garnered over 10,000 attendees who heard from internationally-recognised motivational speaker, and head of the Fatwa Department of the Council of Islamic Scholars of Zimbabwe, Mosti Menk.
They were so surprised by the size of the audience, that they decided to make the conference a yearly event.The Rou is also hosting an outreach programme dubbed the Rou Scout, which is a camp to teach young Trinbagonians valuable life lessons such as survival skills, first aid training, and sporting activities such as hiking and swimming. "It's all about educating the youths," Hosein said.