A Thai Muslim charity is seeking donations to make new dresses for orphans and poor children. The dresses will be distributed before the start of Eid al-Fitr, that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, which starts this month.

The Education and Human Resources Foundation plans to distribute the dresses to 3,000 orphans and under-privileged children in Thailand’s southern border provinces, Thailand’s The Nation reported.

The foundation has been distributing traditional dresses to orphans and under-privileged children for 10 years.

Ismail Saleh, president of the foundation, said the move aims to draw a smile on the faces of orphans and poor children during the Eid festival.

“Muslims always look forward to Eid when they are dressed in new colorful clothes but poor children did not want the Muslim feast to arrive as they could not afford new clothes.” He added.

It’s a tradition for Muslim kids to get new clothes for Eid in many cultures.

Ismail said the foundation measured children for the dresses and the girls were already excited when they were measured for the clothes.

The Muslim foundation also hired struggling, single mothers to make the dress, in an effort to help them raise some income.

Thai Muslims

The majority of Thailand’s 63 million people are Buddhists while Muslims are a minority; constituting 10 percent of the population.

Most of Thailand’s Muslims live in the poverty-stricken three southern provinces, which for years have been economically neglected by the  government. These people are generally referred to as Patani people. They speak the Malay language that is the same as that spoken by their brethren in the south from Malaysia to Indonesia.