I got a lesson this afternoon on how our welfare system is failing the poor, the blind and the orphaned.
Sagita from Sabah , has low vision and categorized as legally blind. Her father died last year and her family moved to her grandmother's house which grandma shares with 2 blind brothers.
Her widowed mother applied for zakat aid in Tawau over a year ago and Baitulmal promised to visit but nobody has turned up yet. So they receive no aid.
Alhamdulillah at last week's conference for the International Union of Braille Quran Services in Istanbul , Alfitrah foundation donated Islamic Braille books including surah Yasin, selected surahs frm the Quran , book of daily doa and Arabic Braille guides to 2 organisations- Albasiir School for the blind in Somalia , and Yardan school for the blind in Kazan, Tatarstan. IBQS will also organise training for their teachers at the Alfitrah office in Kuala Lumpur inshaa Allah.
In the photos are Alfitrah trustees Haji Othman and Norma with Abdulaziz from Tatarstan and Abikar from Somalia.
For our 4th and final charitable event this Ramadan , we included elderly non Muslim blind folk who had not benefited from our earlier events which had been held at a mosque, youth training centre and a secondary school for the visually impaired.
A kind sister from Singapore donated the cash gifts and others donated essential foodstuff like rice sugar cooking oil and flour.
Al-Jazeera- Occupied Gaza Strip - “I consult the Quran before I speak,” explained 48-year-old Kareema Abu Shahma, surrounded by young students in the Jafer mosque in Khan Younis.
“If I need to go somewhere, I study first and then I leave my house. If I’m feeling ill, I study."
Abu Shahma starts and ends her day by reciting the Quran. Having memorised all 6,236 verses of the Muslim holy book in braille over the course of five years, she takes her highly respected title of hafiza– one who has memorised the Quran - seriously.
Every day she revisits about a quarter of the 600-page book to ensure perfect recall.
In the city of Khan Younis, she leads a class of 25 young girls, hoping to help them achieve the same goal by the first week of September when representatives of the Islamic Waqf (Islamic Trust) will test their knowledge.
Alhamdulillah we managed to deliver a Braille Quran and white cane to hafiz Mohammed Anwar, the blind postman from.Haripur in Pakistan who was featured a few months ago in a news report.