Mukhtar Karim

For the past 21 years, the UK based charity, the Lady Fatemah Charitable Trust, has provided needy families with food baskets to help them break their fasts with a nourishing meal. This year the fundraising to feed the needy in Ethiopia, Gaza, Kenya, India, Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen was assisted by two fundraising initiatives. This initiative helps them understand the causes of poverty which it works to alleviate through projects in microfinance, education, healthcare and the provision of clean water.

The first, led by Aaliya Ladha and Khadizatul Kubra who organised a charity fundraising event at their school, Beaconsfield High School in South Buckinghamshire, to raise money for the victims of the war in Yemen. During the event, they painted henna on their friends and teacher’s hands and sold cakes and Indian street foods.

The event both helped raise awareness of the crisis in Yemen and inspired their friends to raise money to help some of the victims. These are some of the testimonials from their friends:

“I found that the pre-Ramadan charity event was enlightening. It was amazing to see so many students involved in helping us to help others around the world. I loved learning more about Islam and I hope integration of other faiths continue to blossom.”

“I’m so proud of everyone who organised and helped with the Ramadan charity event, they all put in so much effort to raise awareness and money for such an important cause and shared an amazing celebration and culture with the rest of the school,” said Cara McKillop.

The second initiative at the Enfield Dental practice saw dental nurses Zoe, Laura and Leyla join in with their Muslim colleagues Dr Wasim and Dr Samana Fazel in fasting for a week and raising money from colleagues and patients for food baskets to be distributed in Yemen. The collective camaraderie of the staff in joining their Muslim colleagues helped them understand the spirit of the Blessed Month as well as empathise with needy people around the world encouraged patients to be generous in donating a total of £800 in total to date.

Together the two initiatives together with other donors have helped the LFT reach out to 200 families in Yemen together with over 5,000 families in the other countries this Ramadan.