For three decades, 71-year-old Blackburn mosque volunteer Musabhai Haldarvi has been travelling to disaster zones to distribute aid.
This time, he is leading an appeal to raise funds for Turkey and Syria, teaming up with a Turkish organization to visit affected areas later this month.
“I could just not sit around and do nothing and wanted to raise as much money as possible,” he told Lancashire Telegraph.
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“We want to provide aid, support and rehabilitation to the most needy. All donations will be personally distributed by the team on ground with the support of registered charities over there.”
Mercy Mission to Turkey
Haldarvi will be travelling with a team from the Masjid E Raza on Tuesday 28 February, hoping to raise as much as possible to help those affected by the quake.
“The mosque have been very proactive in their support as have other local mosques who are sharing our appeal,” he added.
Haldarvi first took part in a mercy mission in the early 90s when he headed out to Bosnia by-road. He has since travelled to Kenya, Pakistan, Somalia, Jordan, and Albania to aid emergency appeals.
“We are getting a lot of support from people across the country and we need to collect as much as possible,” he said.
“Just a note we are not collecting goods or clothes.”
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, “Whoever relieves a Muslim of a burden from the burdens of the world, Allah will relieve them of a burden from the burdens on the Day of Judgement.”
Seeing images of devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck southeastern Turkey and Syria on February 6, several Muslim charities have launched appeals to help those affected on the ground.
The earthquake hit at 4:17 am, followed by aftershocks as large as 6.4 and 6.5 magnitudes respectively only minutes later, leaving more than 29,000 people dead across both Turkey and Syria.