Dubai A school teacher along with friends and family packed a hefty punch for the second Ramadan in a row by handing out over 6,500 snack bags to labourers in the northern emirates.
Sharjah-based Pakistani expat Maha Khan, who teaches English, said she launched a “snack campaign” after being “sickened” by the huge wastage at iftar meals with the hot weather making storage difficult. “I was saddened to see how much food was getting wasted at iftars, which couldn’t be saved or stored because of the heat. The idea of distributing snacks made more sense as they could be consumed over a period of time. Moreover, there are so many underprivileged people out of there who could do with the nourishment.”
THE CAMPAIGN
Maha said when she floated the idea with friends, two of them — Syed Mudassir and Mudassir Munaff — immediately joined her to launch the campaign. “So that’s how the campaign — the holymonth.com — by the 3Ms came about.”
Munaff, a web developer, said the snacks were carefully chosen to ensure they were fresh and sustainable. “Each bag contained an orange, an apple, a chocolate bar, a pack of biscuits, juice and flavoured milk, besides a packet of chips.”
With the trio setting out to fund the campaign on their own with help from family and friends, budgeting was equally important.
“The challenge was to keep the costs sustainable over a period of one month without compromising on the quality of the snacks. So we decided to spend Dh5 on every packet, which would come up to Dh150 a month,” said Maha.
The simple idea soon garnered a lot of support from friends and family. “Last year, we distributed just over 4,000 snack packs and by the end of this Ramadan, the figure crossed 6,500.
“So many people helped us out with the packing and distribution,” she said.
Maha said the snack-packs were distributed among labourers of several camps in Sharjah and Ajman.
To top off the month-long campaign, the 3Ms also purchased T-shirts and presented them to around 200 labourers, complete with a gift-wrap and an ‘Eid Mubarak’ greeting card.
Small gesture
“It was a small gesture on our part but the response was heartening,” said Maha who has been in the UAE for 30 years.
Munaff said: “I’ve lived in the UAE for 21 years and have always wanted to do something to give back to this country. The feedback to the campaign has been so overwhelming that it wants us to do more,” said Munaff.
