RIYADH: Generosity is being shown during Ramadan particularly by the rich or people who have means to share their blessings with the poor.

At breakfast time, there are refrigerators near the mosques. These are stocked up with food like rice, meat, dates, milk, water, among others.

“These refrigerators were bought by the rich and stocked these up with food for the poor for breakfast,” said Ibrahim Al-Ogaily, a Saudi journalist.

In the eastern part of the Saudi capital — Rawabi, Salam, and Kabula — these refrigerators are very visible near the mosques.

The poor just open them and take whatever they want or need for free, said the 44-year-old Saudi newspaperman.

“The rich know that many poor people are ashamed to receive free food for breakfast so they bought these refrigerators and stocked these up with food,” he said.

A Saudi photographer added that others show their generosity by buying food and put these in boxes for distribution to people in the streets at breakfast.

“It’s not uncommon to see these generous people walking in the streets and distribute the boxes to whomever they meet,” he said.

An Asian expatriate said that these people sometimes knock on the steel gates or doors to give the boxes containing food.

“I was surprised at first but I realized later on that it was part of the spirit of observing Ramadan in the Kingdom,” the expat said.

But generosity is also shown in other ways. Business and community leaders organize fund-raising drives and solicit donations for the poor.

An example was the “Al-Khair Yagmana” (Gathering for Happiness) hosted on a television channel by Islamic scholar and author Dr. Mohsin Shaikh Al-Hassan.

The aim was to raise funds for the sick, orphan and disabled children.

Knowing as he did the noble aim of the program, Grand Mufti Sheikh Aldulaziz Al-Sheikh called on everyone to support it.

Businessman Abdul Mohsen Al-Hokair allowed the free use of Al-Hokair Land auditorium for the launching of the project recently.