Charity walks benefits hospital project

 

In February, the Medical Sub-Committee of the Khoja Shia-Asheri Jamaat in Dar-es-Salaam organized a memorable 8 kilometer charity walk in aid of a community hospital project which attracted some 450 walkers from all walks of life.

 

The highlight of the walk was the high number of children who took part.  The children, had, in the weeks preceding the event, worked hard to obtain pledges and the mere sight of boys going around with pledge cards in the mosque compound created a constant awareness to our community folk that a walk was actually in the pipeline.  This awareness attracted more pledges and served to publicize the walk even further (in addition to initial publicity).  More important, it made the event an exciting occasion to look forward to.

 

And so it was on Sunday 9^th February 1986, when after recitation of dua, the walk was declared open at 6.30 a.m. by Hujjatul Islam Syed Mohamedali Lavasani at the Mosque compound.

 

Walkers, amongst whom were some disabled emphatically paved their way through and with almost all of them donning” Walk for Medcare” T-shirts that had earlier been distributed a strong sense of communal feeling prevailed.

 

The organizing committee took all precautions to preserve the safely of the walkers.  The route was manned by two walky-talky patrol cars while two traffic police motorcyclists escorted the walkers to finish.

 

Moreover, fruits, water, coconut juice, salt and glucose tablets and some confectioneries were available on route and doctors were on hand for any emergency.

 

After the Walk the guest of honour, His Excellency Hujjutal Islam Syed Mohamedali Lavasani said it was important for the community to be considerate towards its poor members and pointed out that the projected hospital would serve a very human cause.

 

The Chairman of the Medical Sub-Committee Roshan Fazal outlined future plans and elaborated on the facilities that would be available.  He also thanked all the participants for supporting the charity walk project and announced that a handsome amount of 16.5 million shillings had been pledged.  Of this, 4.5 million came in through walk pledges whilst some 12 million was raised through individual donors.

 

The President of the Jamaat Alhaj Aliraza Rajani said the walk had set a historical record since never in the past had any project attracted so many participants.  He emphasized that this was not the end of it all and that the hospital project would need even more assistance.  Moreover he said that a number of long term goals had to be achieved such as having the community’s own schools, libraries, sports grounds and housing estates.

 

The Chairman accentuated on the prevalent housing problem being faced by some community members and called upon affluent community members who spend unboundingly on luxuries to divert part of their resources towards providing accommodation to some of our unfortunate brothers.

 

Young at 72

The Presentation ceremony then followed.  The fastest finisher was Imtiaz Abbas who jogged his way to finish in an excellent time of 28 minutes.  And who says people get old get 72 – Mr. Nazerali Fzal Ismail (72 years and 10 months) was the oldest finisher and had many people envious of his remarkable fitness at this age.  The youngest walker was Shabbir Hussein Mushtaq Fazal (3 years, 3 months) and you never know, a marathoner may be in the offing.

 

The top five highest collectors were also awarded.  They were Mohamed Asharia, Mohamed Hasham, Gulamhussein Fazal Kermalli, Shabbir Dewji and Gulam Janmohamed.

 

Special awards were given to the three disabled walkers who completed the walk.  They were Murtaza Juma, Noorelain Sheriff and Aqil Meghji.

 

In the children category, awards were given to the three highest collectors, namely Salim M.G. Kermrali (who collected Shs.168,150/-), Mohamedhussein Amir Lakha (who collected Shs 106,200/-) and Hafiz H.N. Gangji (who collected Shs 86,100/-).

 

Gifts donated by the Alia Supermarket were given to young participants and finally and excellent breakfast with various dishes was served by the Kassam family at whose residence the finishing post was.

 

In all, it jolly well was.

 

 

 

The Archives Team requests for Sura-e-Fateha for Marhum Abdulrasul Ahmed Lakha Past Chairman of Africa Federation who passed away on 31^st August 2006.    Marhum served as Chairman from 1980 – 1983. 

 

 

 

Members of the Community are requested to forward this to contacts on their mailing list.

Any suggestions/comments can be sent to federation@raha.com