JEDDAH – In the holy month of Ramadan, people strive to do more charitable work and collect money for the poor and needy. With devices such as BlackBerry and iPhone, social workers find it easier to spread the word and collect large amounts in a short time. This year, individuals involved in such social work are not only meeting the daily needs of the poor during the holy month, but they also are paying off debts of people jailed for nonpayment and get them released. They also contribute to ease the financial burden of other indebted people. Maha Turki, a 34-year-old mother of three, started contacting her friends and relatives since the beginning of Ramadan, asking them to collect money to secure the release of an acquaintance imprisoned for failing to pay back a SR400,000 loan. “The man is only 30 years old and has two kids. He was jailed for a debt he couldn't pay back and we are collecting money to get him released from prison by the end of Ramadan. We hope he could spend Eid Al-Fitr with his family,” Turki said. Turki and her friends have managed to collect half of the amount so far and they are still approaching families and businessmen. “He is a relative of a friend and we are doing this for the sake of Allah in this holy month,” Turki said. She sent several BlackBerry messages urging her friends to contribute to the effort. Iman Rajab, a 48-year-old teacher, is collecting money to pay off the debt of a deceased man. “There is a saying by the Prophet (peace be upon him) that there is no mercy on anyone who dies while in debt. His family doesn't have the money to pay off his debts. We want to collect SR180,000 and we are almost there,” Rajab explained. Despite the presence of umpteen number of charity organizations around the Kingdom, people prefer to hand their money to philanthropists who they know in person. “It's easier to donate money or food to a friend or relative who is doing charitable work than to a charity, especially when we don't really know how charities distribute the money we give them,” said Dana Amri. Amri, a 31-year-old mother of two, started collecting money before Ramadan to make food baskets and send them to poor families in Jeddah. “Me and my friends are carrying out the food basket project for the third year in a row and we already know many needy families in the city as we stay in touch with them throughout the year,” she said. Amri said that they also managed to pay off some poor people's debts and outstanding bills this year. “All our relatives and friends are helping us since they know what we are doing. This year we spent around SR50,000 to relieve a number of poor families from the debt burden,” Amri explained.
