By Aloysius Umalo, Makurdi
About four hundred Muslim Women in Benue State, have benefited from the Ramadan free food distribution and other relief intervention packages of the Mission for Education, Social and Health, MESH, a Non-Governmental Organization owned by the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs.
At a ceremony to flag off the distribution of the relief materials held in Makurdi, the Capital of Benue State, the national Coordinator and Lead Program Officer of Mission for Education, Social and Health, MESH, Hajiya Khadija Oladipopo disclosed that over two thousand households are expected to benefit from the relief package in six selected states across the country.
She said the relief intervention was designed to support about four hundred households in each selected state with essential food packages to cushion the effect of the hardship in the country during the month of Ramadan.
"We are here to flag off the food distribution in Benue State as part of Ramadan food support drive that MESH is doing across the country. We are supporting a state in each of the geopolitical zones to give them at least 400 people in each state to support them with food package, essential food items that they will need in their households in this month of Ramadan.
"The gesture is coming from donors ac oss the country, Islamic Bank, Jaiz bank, Taj Bank and some individuals and philanthropists who have donated generously towards this program across the country and so far, we have supported more than 2000 households for this 2024 Ramadan.
"The objective of this program is to support households especially in this hard times of food items in the country".
Former President of the Federation of Muslim Women Association in Nigeria, FOMWAN, and Coordinator of MESH in Benue State, Dr. Maryam Yakubu commended the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs for the intervention and appealed to well spirited individuals and Organizations to extend more help to the needy in the rewarding month of Ramadan.
"If you are to open the bags and see the content of food inside, you will really appreciate and pray God to bless the donors. With the high cost of commodities in the market, there are quality foods in the sacks for the beneficiaries to enjoy with their families and that will go a long way in putting smile on their faces.
"We also want to use this platform as a medium of reaching out to those spirited individuals and organisations to really key into what MESH is doing because a tree cannot make a forest. Let other people also key in so that the gesture will go round in alleviating poverty. We want our Muslim brothers and sisters to show their magnanimity especially in a rewarding month like this".
She said the second phase of the exercise after the flag off would be executed by the leadership of Federation of Muslim Women in Nigeria, FOMWAN and executives of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria, MSSN who are critical partners in the Ramadan food distribution chain.
Meanwhile, the Vice President of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria, Abdurashid Idris, who is an implementing partner told Journalists that about fifty students of various tertiary institutions in the country have also benefited from the Ramadan food distribution program.
"We are in collaboration with the Federation of Muslim Women Association to implement this Ramadan food intervention from MESH. We are at the flag off stage and so far, 50 members of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria have already benefited from this gesture and our target population is 400 students.
"Like Oliver Twist, we will also request for more intervention from members of the society so that it will ease the lives of Muslim Students due to the prevailing economic hardship".
One of the beneficiaries of the relief package, Hajiya Habiba Mohammed, a member of Women in DA’AWA expressed appreciation to the Non-Governmental Organization, assuring that the intervention was enough to mitigate the impact of the hardship, particularly during the Ramadan season.
