CHICAGO – Dozens of volunteers poured on Sunday morning to participate in a large volunteering event coordinated by the Islamic Society of North America and a host of several organizations during ISNA’s 53rd annual convention.
Supervised and staffed by the “Stop Hunger now” campaign and the Muslim Woman’s Alliance, several volunteers that spanned high scholars and adults alike participated in the hunger prevention project.
In order to increase volunteer participation, ISNA had removed all possible hindrances to joining, waiving the ISNA participation fee for volunteers altogether.
Dozens were pre-registered prior to the event, and several others registered on site throughout the volunteering session.
The ‘Emerging Leaders’ program, run by the Muslim Woman’s Alliance, had recruited several high scholars from around the Chicago to be able to participate in this thoughtful program.
As the volunteers settled in, groups of fives were designated to package dry grains, beans, and rice, as they worked dedicatedly from the morning and through the day to be able to package up to 40,000 meals.
Some participants enthusiastically participated in giving their views on the Prophetic examples that they drew from when volunteering in the event.
Zainab, 14, from Islamic Foundation school in Chicago, shared her views on this topic, saying that Khadjiah, the wife of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), was a major source of inspiration for her and a role model in faith, who motivated her to volunteer.
“Khadijah, despite her wealth, stood with the poor, even at her own expense towards the end of her life,” Zainab said.
Muhammad, 16, from Naperville North, a local high school in the Chicagoland as well, drew from the examples from the times of the Prophet.
“I always remember the story of the man, who saw his neighbor was hungry once, and made sure he slaughtered an animal for him, but the man that received it believed his other neighbor was less fortunate, and this cycle went on until the very animal he slaughtered came back to the doorstep of the man who made the first generous act,” he said.
Alleviate Poverty
A parallel session towards the end of the volunteer session also spoke about several organizations across America that sought to alleviate poverty and deliver food and services to people in need.
The panelists came from diverse backgrounds, as some were from Northern New Jersey, to Maine, all the way to the Great Lake State of Michigan.
Among the statistics that many of these organizations gathered, there was a grave concern for food shortages in the country and a large need for the presence of these organizations.
“Up to 48 million people go to sleep hungry every day in America and have at least one form of food insecurity in their lives,” Sarah Al Nakib, the panelist that represented SMILE, a non-for-profit organization that served the communities in Northern New Jersey, said.
She defined food insecurity as the “state of not being able to access sufficient food sources”. Furthermore, food insecurity was rampant among children populations, as she said up to, “15 million children lived in food insecure households.”
Among the clientele that SMILE works with, in the fiscal year of 2013, 44 percent of all participants were under the age of 18.
Bushra Islam, the second panelist gave an informative presentation about the summer projects that were run by the Islamic Society of Portland, Maine.
She showed a PowerPoint slide that she spoke to as “Almost every county and city in America has individuals that have food shortages in their households.”
Furthermore, she stated that Maine had seen a recent influx of several Somali and Syrian refugees in recent years, and food shortages among the local population had given rise to the need for these programs.
Muzamil Ahmad, the panelist who represented Michigan Muslim Community Council, spoke about the several issues in the past year that had plagued Michigan, from the Flint Crisis to the DPS (Detroit Public school) scandals, and how the Muslim community had made a large presence in combating these local issues.
“In order for any community engagement to occur, you have to have Community pride, you have to love your community,” Muzammil stated.
Muzammil believed that in order to truly be able to help those in need, you must be able to treat the communities one lives in as one of their own, and to not isolate oneself in a bubble away from the issues that affect their communities.
He spoke about the several programs that they had done for the Flint Community by delivering water bottles and other services to the plagued families of Flint, and how, despite the harsh winter of last year, the Muslim community showed up in droves, to consistently go door to door handing out water bottles throughout the course of a month.
Linda Sarsour, the panelist who represented the New York community, had also participated in the Water program that was coordinated in Flint.
She recalled how every single participant made a lasting impression about Islam and Muslims indirectly by their actions, and not by necessarily speaking about Islam itself.
In conclusion, the several community projects and opportunities for community engagement had overall made a large impact in attempting to spearhead the several issues that plague Muslims and their non-Muslim neighbors alike.
The panelists insisted that every single individual should always be able to participate every once in awhile in such programs or to at least monetarily contribute to fund these beautiful programs.
The Volunteer program in the morning alongside the session in the afternoon had clearly shown the impact of the Muslim community on America and how they consistently demonstrate that they are a fabric of the respective communities they live in.