JEDDAH, 12 December 2007 — Providing help to the guests of God is a wonderful experience, according to people who volunteered their services during past Haj seasons. Many pilgrims, especially the elderly and sick, cannot complete the religious duites properly without help, they say. Community groups in the Kingdom have been competing with one another in this field, providing a variety of services to Haj pilgrims, irrespective of their nationalities. The Jeddah Haj Welfare Forum (JHWF) has been engaged in pilgrim services for the past eight years.
JHWF’s services have been praised by officials as well as pilgrims. “We have decided to send 500 volunteers this year to the holy places on Haj service,” said Ashraf Ali Kakkat, convener of JHWF. “Our volunteers are well-trained to extend any service to pilgrims,” he told Arab News.
O.K.M. Moulavi is the chairman of the organization, which operates under the umbrella of the Indian Embassy and with support of the Saudi authorities. JHWF is an association of 18 Keralite cultural and religious organizations in Jeddah.
The forum’s activities begin with the arrival of pilgrims at King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah where its volunteers will be at hand to receive pilgrims, help them get into buses of Tawafa organizations and carry their luggage to vehicles.
“Our main work is in Mina where pilgrims spend four days. We help stranded pilgrims reach their camps, take sick pilgrims to health centers and hospitals, help pilgrims to stone at the Jamrats and perform tawaf (circumambulation) at the Grand Mosque in Makkah,” Kakkat said.
“Our volunteers also rush to accident sites to take the injured to hospitals. We also prepare documents for dead pilgrims and make arrangement for their burial,” he added.
Distribution of food in Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifa is another major work of the organization. “Last year we distributed 25,000 food packets,” said Kakkat. The forum has opened a Haj information center in Sharafiya, which operates from 5 to 11 p.m. The center can be contacted at 0533418230.
The volunteers wear uniforms provided by the Indian Pilgrims Welfare Forum, an affiliate of the embassy. “We have been serving at least 10,000 pilgrims every year,” Kakkat said.
Farouk Mohammed, head of public relations at the forum, said the organization had helped many pilgrims to retrieve lost baggage from airlines. “We have also tried to educate pilgrims about their rights, including refunds for not using tents and buses,” he explained.
The forum’s officials expect greater support and cooperation from the Haj Ministry and other Haj-related organizations to make their work easy. The volunteers have spent nearly SR100,000 on this service.
Kakkat praised the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), Dawa centers and other NGOs for their support to the forum’s activities.
Meanwhile, 169 people donated blood on Friday afternoon during a four-hour blood donation drive for pilgrims. The blood collection drive was organized by the Riyadh chapter of the Tamil Nadu Tawheed Jamaat (TNTJ) and the King Fahd Medical City.
“We got an unprecedented response from expatriates of all faiths for this worthy project that would help the guests of Allah who come to the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah,” said Mujibur Rahman, coordinator for TNTJ.
He added that more than 300 expatriates came to the hospital to donate and that the hospital authorities could only accommodate 200 donors due to a lack of time. “Of the 200 people, only 169 were able to donate blood as others were found unfit,” he noted.
— Additional input by Mohammed Rasooldeen in Riyadh
“We got an unprecedented response from expatriates of all faiths for this worthy project that would help the guests of Allah who come to the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah,” said Mujibur Rahman, coordinator for TNTJ.
He added that more than 300 expatriates came to the hospital to donate and that the hospital authorities could only accommodate 200 donors due to a lack of time. “Of the 200 people, only 169 were able to donate blood as others were found unfit,” he noted.
— Additional input by Mohammed Rasooldeen in Riyadh
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