For the third year in a row, Jeddah volunteers have embarked on a mission to make a difference by distributing hot cooked meals for free to the less fortunate people living in the city. The volunteers are working on a daily basis in Jeddah's five areas, namely, Karentina, Ghariyat, Balad, Ruwais and Jamaa District.
Young Initiative Group (YIG) is a Jeddah-based voluntary group that has been carrying out Ramadan projects, which include providing iftar meals. The group gathers volunteers, chooses the areas where the distribution is to take place and collects food donations from companies, restaurants, kitchens and factories in Jeddah.
The YIG project, Iftar Sayem3, continues its successful run this year too. This year, the group comes with experience and a new plan, in addition to a young group of volunteers who are passionate about helping others. “YIG’s success story shows the commitment and dedication of the youth towards the needy people in society and how they consider it as a responsibility that should be taken care of,” said Adham Attar, co-founder of YIG. “The success of Iftar Sayem 1, where the number of meals increased from 300 a day to 1100 a day, and the number of volunteers from 14 to 80, gave us the push and motivation to repeat it. Thank God, Iftar Sayem 2 went beyond our expectations, as we distributed 2,000 meals a day and it was way better than Iftar Sayem 1 due to our understanding of and learning from our mistakes,” he added.
“Iftar Sayem 3, which is currently underway is going smoothly based on our experience of the past two years. We will continue this for the coming years as well as it has become a YIG tradition,” said Attar.
"This year, we did things differently. After a group discussion, YIG voted for hot meals over cold meals because that’s what people preferred last year. Volunteers still wanted to pack and distribute food. Under the supervision of Dania Al-Masry, YIG co-founder, cold meals were packed by Dar Al-Hekma staff and their family members and eventually distributed. That’s how we divided the task and no switching was required,” said Durnaz Balooshi, co-founder of YIG. “We called up all the restaurants that could provide us with free meals. First, we contacted our donors in the past years (Al-Tazaj and Badr Kitchen) who willingly agreed to provide meals for free and drop them at our meeting point. Juice, rusk and halawa tahini were generously provided by Al Rabie’s sister company Selo,” she added.
Volunteers and founders of YIG went around restaurants that make rice and chicken to see who could provide food at the best price. “Our hot meals consist of rice, chicken, samosa, dates, water, juice, sweets and laban, which is additional item from the third week,” said Balooshi.” The quality of food has to be excellent and that is why we personally choose the restaurants that we buy from,” she added.
New comers who just joined the volunteer group are impressed by how organized the group is and how much they have achieved in a short time. Eighteen-year-old Mohammad Kamel joined the Iftar Sayem 3 project on its first day and was assigned to volunteer in downtown Jeddah. At first, he was not sure of how people would react to a huge number of volunteers coming into their neighborhood, but when he witnessed it first hand he was pleased. “I am more than happy to give my time and energy for this generous cause. When I was told about it I thought it might be chaotic,” he said. “I have visited two locations and witnessed how people in Balad are living, what they are eating and how desperate they were for the food that we were distributing. I feel good and satisfied everyday when we finish the distribution and I’m thankful that I met such people who care about others,” he said.
Kamel said the YIG is very organized and has managed to teach the same discipline to the less fortunate people in the neighborhood. “As soon as we enter the location we see women, children and men making different queues waiting for their daily meal,” he said. “The volunteers divide themselves into three groups and that’s how we are able to finish work in almost 30 minutes without trouble,” he added.
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