Feeding Fasting Families during Ramadan
To all who celebrate the holy month of Ramadan, we hope the month brought you peace, strength, and meaningful connections with loved ones.
For over a decade, RefuSHE has partnered with the Zakat Foundation of America to distribute food packages and hot meals to needy refugee households throughout Nairobi. These packages - which consist of bags of rice, cooking oil, lentils, vegetables, and pasta - provide the staples families need to prepare nourishing meals at suhoor (pre-dawn meal) and at iftar (sunset meal).
During the month of Ramadan, RefuSHE distributed food packages to 200 Muslim households - including young women in our Safe House, at our campus, and in the Eastleigh community of Nairobi - reaching 545 individuals. In addition, on Eid Al-Fitr (March 20; the end of Ramadan), RefuSHE distributed 400 hot meals at several Eid community gatherings.
RefuSHE serves a large number of Somali, Ethiopian, and Eritrean refugees who are of Muslim faith. The need for our Ramadan program continues to grow as food inflation rises in Kenya and around the world. Many of the Muslim women we serve are food vendors who experience significant declines in business during the holy month, due to customers fasting. This leaves their families with no income to support basic needs including food.
Ramadan brings hunger into focus; daily fasting can breed compassion for the less fortunate who suffer from food insecurity or malnutrition. We're proud to join forces with other Zakat Foundation grantees around the world who have collectively provided food to over 700,000 people during the month of Ramadan.
Our Ramadan food program is made possible by a generous grant from the Zakat Foundation of America. Click here to learn more about their global Ramadan humanitarian campaign.
“I sell tea in my community, but during Ramadhan business becomes very slow because most people are fasting. Some days there is almost no income. This food support means we can still have meals at home even when I am not earning. I am very grateful.”
