Wants and needs

What we don't need, we throw. But few realise that what you discard could be of immense use to someone else. Lina Salhi, and other members of the Islamic Club, realised this which led to a laudable scheme

But consider yourself privileged that you can buy and discard things at a whim. Because there are people out there for whom the thought of easily discarding a perfectly usable item would be unacceptable.

And this wisdom did not occur to old but to young, fresh minds.

Two years ago, a small group of students, after visiting a few needy homes in Ajman, said to themselves, "We could help these people wholeheartedly, but our efforts would probably be insufficient to meet all their needs."

At the time of the first visit, the group comprised of five members of the Islamic Club at the American University in Dubai (AUD). Today, it has grown to 25 members.

The members identify the underprivileged in the UAE and help them by raising money and teaching them skills to earn a living. One of its active members, Lina Salhi, has been involved with this project from its inception.

Salhi, a 22-year-old Syrian-Canadian who graduated in e-business last year now works as a real estate agent, but continues to liaise with other members of the Club, visiting poor families in the UAE.

"When we started, it seemed easy; we were determined to help these needy people in whichever way we could. We visited select wealthy families to collect unused and unwanted items such as clothes, books, shoes, bags and home appliances. These were then sorted, labelled, priced and sold."

The satisfaction that resulted from this gave impetus to their efforts, but the process turned out to be a bit painstaking and prolonged.

"The sorting and labelling became tedious," Salhi says, "so we decided to adopt a different approach. We appealed to multinational companies to donate surplus or unused stock."

"We received garments, home appliances, video and PC games, chocolates, foodstuff and bodycare products in the form of donations. These were sold and proceeds were used to pay the utility bills, education fees and back other needs of these families."

What began primarily as a financial undertaking now has an additional dimension – education.

"We want these families to earn a living. Charity will help them for now, but we felt the need to make them self-sufficient," Salhi says.

Thus members of the Club would visit different families to find out what kind of skills the women possessed – for example, cooking, sewing or technical – and these skills were put to use to help them be self employed.

At present, 20 families are currently under their care. "Plain shawls and scarves are bought in bulk which some widows embroider and stitch; others prepare sweets during Islamic festivals while a few more are enrolled in free training courses to learn different skills."

(The Club has had three charity sales – one at AUD and two at The Knowledge Village and is regularly supported by the UAE Red Crescent Society. Should you wish to make a donation, e-mail Salhi at linasalhi@hotmail.com)