Turkish NGO donates to Philippines' south for Ramadan

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines

A Turkish non-profit organization has distributed food packages to around 2,500 needy Muslim families in the southern Philippines ahead of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting.

Representatives from Hasene - which is based in Germany - came together with members of the local Basilan Ulama Supreme Council (BUSC) to donate food supplies Tuesday and Wednesday in Isabela City in Basilan.

Kemal Sagdic, the Hasene team leader, told the Anadolu Agency that the event was part of a yearly Ramadan aid campaign and was intended to assist underprivileged single-parent families and orphans with no fixed-income or livelihood in different Basilan villages.

"We have come here to Basilan from our countries to reach out to our brothers and sisters in Islam, and to express our love and solidarity on the occasion of Ramadan," he said.

The council's spokesperson Ahmad Al-amin told AA, "this is the first program that the Hasene organization has implemented [in the region].”

Al-amin said that the campaign, on which P1.7 million (over US$40,000) had been spent, was a source of relief and great joy to the people.

Meanwhile, Ustadz Wahid Amil, the religious adviser of the Civil Society Organization of Muslim Professionals, appealed to well-off Muslims to be compassionate toward those in need.

He highlighted the continued suffering of around 100,000 refugees who were forced to flee their homes in September when a group of Muslim rebels laid siege to the city of Zamboanga - a majority Christian enclave in the Philippines Muslim South - to highlight their opposition to a peace process between a fellow Muslim group and the Philippines goverment.  

Even today, nine months on, more than 20,000 people belonging to different ethnic groups still live in temporary shacks on the city's seafront and in a nearby sports stadium as they are yet to be allowed to return to their homes.

Basilan is one of many areas in the southern Philippines awash with militants from the Abu Sayyaf, a rebel group that has carried out bombings, kidnappings, beheadings and other violence to gain recognition as it vied for an independent Muslim state in Mindanao island.

In the past few weeks, the government has been involved in a fierce attempt to clamp down on Abu Saayaf kidnappings and insurgency-related activities in the region.

Amil called on believers to observe the fast with full solemnity, devoting themselves to prayers for the peace and security of their society during the holy month.

www.aa.com.tr/en