In the month of giving, a Jeddah-based volunteer group has been working together to spread joy and happiness among the less fortunate people in the city. For the sixth year now, a group of young volunteers organized a relief campaign to distribute iftar meals to about 400 people in south Jeddah’s Karantina district.
This annual tradition started in 2010 and every year volunteers head to the same area, where they distribute iftar and hand out candies and toys in Eid.
According to Lina Jamjoom, Karantina is home to a large number of people who lack both jobs and education. “The houses are small and the occupants are many. This area is in need of attention from people who want to give back to the community with more than just Iftar Sayem,” she said. “We have been visiting this neighborhood for six years now and we have developed a strong bond with them. It is funny that as soon as we arrive, they sing a song to celebrate our coming and this makes us feel warm inside,” she said.
This year, around 725 meals have been distributed every day to people living in Karantina, according to Hala Mazrooa, one of the organizers. “Around 25 young volunteers have been attending the Iftar Sayem campaign this Ramadan. The food is distributed to lines of men, women and children. It takes us just 20 to 30 minutes to distribute all meals because we have enough volunteers who know exactly how to deal with this campaign,” she said. “We have a new station this year, we added a photo booth for people to take funny and silly photos of themselves and their friends, they can of course keep the photos. We use polaroid cameras to print instant photos aside from all the photo booth equipment and accessories,” she added.
The distributed meals are of two kinds. “For young children and teenagers we distribute around 200 chicken sandwiches along with juice boxes. Once they receive their meals, they head straight to the playground for some fun and games,” said Nouf Bannan, a Karantina volunteer. “Older men and women receive 300 hot meals consisting of rice, a whole chicken, laban, water and dates, all nicely put together in protective aluminum boxes and plastic bags,” she added.
Karantina children connected with the volunteers on an entirely different level. “I was a little afraid that the young ones would not accept us and play with us but when we started the games, there was a great turnout and the fun started. I remember when we started packing on the first day to leave the location, the children were very disappointed and wanted to spend more time playing with us,” said Ghaida Sindi. “This made us think of other types of games that we could teach them to play together without us being there. The children’s enthusiasm made me even more excited to think out of the box and come up with new ideas and games to teach them and play with them,” she added.
According to Sindi, playing with the children strengthened the relationship between the volunteers and the people living in the neighborhood. It solidified the trust between them and made the connection stronger.
Orphanages get a special treat during the holy month as volunteers pay a special visit to young children with no families. The orphans are too young to meet with volunteers on the street so the volunteers visit them to distribute groceries and special gifts. “We also make sure to pass by them to celebrate the occasion by distributing Eid clothes, toys and candies among the young ones,” said Ayah Shata.
“Volunteering with Iftar Sayem for the past six years has been a great experience. There is a strong sense of community between the volunteers and the people in Karantina. It always feels great to be able to help, even in the smallest way possible,” said Basma Amin, one of the volunteers.
Karantina people already know how these volunteers work. As soon as the volunteers arrive, they find the people standing in three different lines of men, women and children, exactly how they have been taught to.
Aside from Iftar Sayem, the volunteers started another project where they hire men from Karantina for a development and restoration project in the same area. “This project is one of the most exciting projects we have. When we visited a number of houses and saw that they needed to be fixed, we decided to come up with a solution. What better than to provide young men with full-time jobs and salaries to fix their own neighborhood and their neighbors’ houses,” said Jamjoom. “All we did is provide them with the needed equipment and documentation they need to complete the project. With that we helped young men with income generating jobs and the neighborhood with safer houses,” she added.
The volunteers took photos of the houses before and after restoration for documentation reasons. “We are looking to prepare a presentation for companies interested in corporate social responsibility projects,” said Jamjoom.

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