CAIRO – Members of Leeds Muslim community have joined their hands to offer the needy in their city a special day, offering hundreds of toys, gifts and food parcels in the annual day for charity.
“This year’s Sadaqa Day event was a huge success due to the partnership to Muslim organizations that brought it all together and we were humbled by the turnout of volunteers who joined us from other faith groups, making Sadaqa Day an incredible interfaith experience,” Aisha Rashid, coordinator of Leeds Muslim Youth Forum and the Sadaqa Day Leeds team, told Yorkshire Evening Post on Tuesday, March 22.
“We are confident that Sadaqa Day will be an annual event that will celebrate the numerous good works that are carried out by Muslims across Leeds”.
Rashid was speaking about charity events organized in Leeds on Sadaqa Day marked on March 21.
Sadaqa Day is a national initiative which was designed to help the needy, strengthen community relations and showcase shared values across the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths at Easter.
Helping the needy in the special day, more than 50 volunteers came together, collecting hundreds of toys, gifts and food items.
Donations were collected at Makkah mosque in Hyde Park and boxed up into food-parcel which will be delivered to poor and vulnerable families in conjunction with the ‘PAFRAS’ charity.
In addition, 100 new toys and cards made by youngsters were planned to be gifted to children in care in Leeds.
Groups marking the #SadaqaDayLeeds included, Makkah Masjid Mosque in Hyde Park, Leeds Grand Mosque, Abu Huraira Mosque, Leeds Muslim Youth Forum, Baab-ul-Ilm, Leeds Muslim Youth Group, Hamara Healthy Living Centre and the Leeds Give A Gift project.
Interfaith Unity
In another part of the city, Muslim and Jewish interfaith groups teamed up with a Mosque to take part in the charity day.
During the day, Nisa-Nashim and Unity spent Sunday in Hujjat Mosque, in Wood Lane, Stanmore, to make 475 food parcels for 14 different hostels across North West London.
“My students were hugely enthusiastic and keen to participate in Sadaqa day. The hands on experience brought charity to life and moved it beyond putting money in a box or texting a donation based on a video they have seen,” Riyaz Dhalla, a teacher at the mosque’s Sunday school, told This Is Local London.
“The kids were all proud to be involved in an initiative that directly benefited the community within which they live and one that is directly accessible to them. They have all come up with great ideas to make Sadaqa day even bigger next year.”
The 450 children who took part wrote personal notes on each pact to bring home a message of “support, outreach and compassion”.
“This was a collective effort. Imagine what we could achieve if this a regular joint venture. United we worked, united we will remain,” Soraya Janmohamed the co-founder of Nisa-Nashim Harrow and organizer of the Sadaqa Day, said.
Britain is home to a sizable Muslim minority of nearly 2.7 million.
Last July, a survey by JustGiving charity website has found that Muslims top charity givers in the UK, compared with other faiths.