Hirra Azmat
Srinagar, Oct 9: At a time when international NGOs have ditched Kashmiris, local charities and masjid Baitulmaals have gone into an overdrive to help the poor and needy in the restive valley.
From financial assistance to providing 24 hour free dialysis service, Baitulmals and local charities are reaching-out to the people in crisis.
Sample this: Dialysis center at Athrot, a local Charity, has been an oasis of hope in the vast sea of despair that has flooded the valley since August 5.
Located in old city’s Nawa Kadal area, the dialysis center has been working round the clock given the huge flow of patients since August 5.
“The poor patients who have been issued a golden card by the government find it difficult to avail its service in absence of internet connection. Many of them have come to our dialysis center to avail treatment. Around 59 patients requiring dialysis are currently registered with them,” said Mudasir Ahmad, Manager at Athrot.
Free dialysis care is just a tip of the iceberg. Athrot has been at the forefront of providing distributing monthly financial assistance to widows, medicines, and marriage kits to poor brides.
Similarly, Baitulmaals at various local mosques have been contributing significantly to help people in their localities amid current upheaval.
Shah-e-Hamdan Mosque at Chanapora in Srinagar has received countless requests and appeals for help since the restrictions were imposed. The 10 volunteers behind the fundraising work of Baitulmaal have been on their toes since August 5 in their quest to reach out to people.
“Almost every day since the clampdown began, people approach the Bitulmaal for help. Today itself, one person working with a private firm has come to us for financial help. He has not received his salary for last two months. There was another person from the private sector facing a similar problem. He has been given Karz-e-Hasnain from the Baitulmaal,” said Manzoor Ahmad, a retired professor who is the in-charge of the Masjid Committee.
Similarly Jamaat-e-Ahlehadees Masjid at Lal Nagar, Chanapora, has been receiving endless requests from affected people especially from the local transport community who have borne the brunt of the lockdown.
“We usually make fundraising appeals twice on Fridays. The first round of fund raising is for the upkeep of the mosque and second for the Baitulmaal. Seeing the magnitude of problems faced by people at present, we decided to focus our fund raising only for the Baitulmaalso that we can benefit as many people as possible,” said one of the Masjid committee members.
Recently their volunteers visited the homes of all the cab and bus drivers in their locality to provide them monetary help. “Their names are registered with us and properly verified. We are in process of gathering more funds for them,” he said.
