Guest Author - Serkan Tufan

In the last article, I mentioned to you that one of the main wisdom in sacrifising live stock animals in this coming holiday is helping out the poor by giving at least two thirds of the meat to people in need. Considering meat is generally expensive around the world, this is such a great means to contribute to the little happinesses of these people.

In 1999 earthquake in Turkey, over 40,000 people died and more injured. The main lesson from this earthquake is that such businessman and realty millionaires woke up under a bare tent with no food, water, and clothes with their poorest brothers and sisters. There, they understood that the important thing is to pursue human qualities and virtues, as we can be in the same situation with the poorest anytime during our lives. So most of these people paid huge thanks to Allah and became the most devoted and helper friends of the poor.

We all the time talk the talk by saying that there are billions of poor in the world. Moreover, United Nations just announced that according to the statistics, for the first time the death numbers from hunger for the children and babies under the age of 6 dropped to UNDER 10 MILLION this year...Oh, what a relief.....So we just narrate these stories and finish up by saying "governments and organizations definitely should help these people out". But no, it is our turn to help now and I would like to mention a wonderful opportunity for that.

The most trustworthy organization located in Indiana for helping out the poor during the time of Eid- al Atha, or The feast of Sacrifice is Holy Dove Foundation. Last year, they collected some donations for providing the meat by sacrifising animals in Bangladesh and went there and donated the meat to these brothers and sisters. You have a chance to make this happen this year. They are doing the same organization this year again. I looked at their website and they have an address to send checks for donation, which is tax deductable. They do not have any online form of donation through credit card. But they do have an ally educational organization called Scioto Educational Foundation , and they have a resource for online donation. They will also support Holy Dove Foundation in sacrifising and donating in Bangladash I will provide both links for you in case you would like to contribute. I will also provide videos of how they actually give out the meat to the families in baggies. One thing struck me as I watched, how small was the amount of meat each person got. Although they gave out hundreds of animals, this can tell you how many people and children were in need and how long was the line to pick up the meat.

Here are the links for both foundations for donation and videos from last year.
Please do not forget to mention specifically when you donate that these donation will go to sacrifice animals for Bangladesh. Donating one lamb is $100 but you can obviously make smaller gifts since they pool them together and every $100 total will make a sacrifice.

A few piece of meat will not end the hunger in the world but it is a mean for brotherhood and support in the time of a holiday, too. It means having our holiday making sure that other people somewhat have it, too...poor people have always expected this holiday every year with much excitement because it might be their only time to eat meat during the year. You can always make other types of donations at other times, too.

Videos: http://www.sefohio.org/kurban.html

Online donation through SEF: http://www.sefohio.org/template/support.html

Donation by check through Holy Dove Foundation: http://theholydove.org/supportus.htm

Thanks so much and I am looking forward to this Feast of Sacrifice to see many people happier around the world.....


P.S. Let me know if you contributed to this cause by emailing me, and I will send you some books about Islam as a surprise gift for my thank you...