Shopkeepers Jawad and Asiyah Javed delivered food and household packages to vulnerable people during the self isolation phase of Coronavirus (Credit: courtesy of Asiyah Javed)

Nadine Osman

While some shopkeepers exploited the empty shelves in supermarkets amid the Coronavirus pandemic by hiking the prices for everyday essentials, a Muslim couple from Falkirk in Scotland went the opposite direction; they decided to give away thousands of pounds worth of stock from their corner shop Day Today Express to vulnerable people in need during the Coronavirus pandemic.

It’s not the first time the kind-hearted Asiyah Javed, 34, and her husband Jawad, 35, gave away goods at their own expense. In 2018 they delivered milk free-of-charge to struggling OAPs during the ‘Beast from the East’ cold wave.

Initially, the couple, who had stocked up on the goods before Coronavirus reached Scotland started giving out free packs of face masks and antibacterial gel to elderly customers earlier this month, having spent £4,000 to give away 2,000 packs.

But with schools closed and some parents being made redundant the couple began giving away free care packages of baby food, infant milk, and baby wipes to vulnerable families.

They gave away 100 jars of baby food but are now giving out full care packages for any family in the area that needs one. So far the charitable offer has cost them an additional £2,500 – and their children Salman, 14, Maryam, 11, and Rayyan, 5, have chipped in £500 from their piggy banks.

Asiyah told The Muslim News, “We’ve been told we made other people do this, encouraged them. We’ve been getting messages from Bristol, London a lot of people are now trying to help. Some people could not leave their houses, they’re disabled so we been delivering the packages to their houses.”

Each pack costs about £2.50 and Asiyah and Jawad are hoping to give away 1,000 packs. Their children have together put £500 towards the cause – money they were initially saving to go towards a holiday in Barcelona at the end of March.

The mum-of-three said, “We’ve had people contributing towards it as well, like £10 or £20, because they want us to do more.”

Asiyah is also hoping locals could help out with distributing the baby packs, as panic-buying continues and supermarkets run low on stock.

As news of their charitable work went viral the couple have been inundated with messages of goodwill for the general public and customers. Writing a Google review OAP customer John Tully spoke of his experience looking for a hand sanitizer, ‘As a pensioner, I haven’t been able to buy it anywhere in all supermarkets, etc.

I asked the young man serving, this is probably a stupid question but do you have any hand sanitizer. The young man serving informed me that they were giving OAP a pack with hand soap a sanitizer wipe and a face mask free of charge. I told him I only wanted the sanitizer and was willing to pay for it, he said it was free to OAP’s and would not accept payment.’

He added, ‘I would like to thank him and all concerned in the shop for their kind generosity to the older persons in our community, they must be losing a lot of money with their kindness.

I hope that more people will learn of this and support our small local shops, as I have not seen any of the supermarkets willing to help. Great shop, my wife and I will be doing a lot of our shopping there.’

Tommy Roche said, ‘I have just seen the report of this store delivering hygiene care packs to elderly members of their community. It may seem to this young couple that it’s only a small thing they are doing, but in these troubled times, it is truly heartwarming and inspiring to see. Thank you Asiyah and Jawad.’

Craig Young wrote, ‘A very generous and caring couple. Wish more retail establishments followed their lead. Keep up the good work.’