OnIslam
Sunday, October 02, 2011
It was held after the second visit of the Islamic Relief team to Somalia since the recent famine hit in there. In the second visit both the prominent retired football player Nader el-Sayed- former goalkeeper of the Egyptian national football team- and Hanan Turk, Egyptian actress, went with the Islamic Relief team to Somalia. Both are Islamic Relief’s ambassadors. Al-Arabiya Saudi news agency was there with them from the first visit to shoot what is going on. Right after they were back from Somalia, this team called for holding a press conference to tell the world what they have seen. It was well covered by the Egyptian media, and OnIslam.net was there.
The four speakers of the conference were Yousry El-Tahawy, the Middle East In charge of Ambassadors & Volunteers Department, Ayman Abed, Marketing Manager of Islamic Relief Middle East, Nader el-Sayed, and Hanan Turk. A guest of honor was Mr. Neyazy Sallaam, a successful business man and the founder of the Egyptian Food Bank and partner in a huge charity campaign to advance the poor marginalized areas throughout Egypt. He is the owner of Olympic Group Corporation, and he gave the biggest hall in his company for the press conference for free. He left early because he had an important appointment.
The conference started by a minute of silence for the 800-1000 Somali victims who die on a daily basis, and then they played a short documentary about their last visit.
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| Mr. Neyazy Sallaam, the first speaker, did not go to Somalia, but was one of the main supporters and donors of this last visit. |
More Tales from Somalia
The documentary presented heart-breaking scenes that left all the attendees weeping. It showed Somalis crying and grimacing in hunger and agony, a large group little kids opening their mouths for Turk to pour some water in them, mothers carrying their dying little kids helplessly, and more. Somalis were calling the relief team “Arabs! Arabs!,” to grasp their attention to give them the food and the supply. Mothers when given milk for their kids they sell it to feed the whole family, that’s why the relief team gave them the milk bottles opened to force them to give the milk to their anemic children. Kids there suffer from severe malnutrition and Rickets. Kids look much younger that they are.
The video also shed light on the hospitals there. There are several very poor primitive field hospitals. Somalia’s biggest children hospital is actually a hut built from wood and steel sheets. The biggest hospital there, Banader, looks like anything but a hospital, it lacks equipment, medicine, and beds. Patients are carried on vegetable carts instead of ambulance, and blood fridges contain some food and no blood! It is the product of the worst drought and famine in 60 years combines with 20 years of civil war.
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| Hanan Turk, Egyptian famous actress, who has gone to Gaza, Iraq and Darfur before, said that what she saw there is much worse than anything she has seen anywhere. |
Tell the Whole World About It
Mr. Neyazy Sallaam, the first speaker, did not go to Somalia, but was one of the main supporters and donors of this last visit. There is cooperation between the food bank and Islamic Relief; that Food Bank has previously helped Islamic Relief in Gaza and in helping the Egyptians on the Egyptian-Libyan borders, and now it’s helping in Somalia. Also Islamic Relief has helped both the food bank and its share in the campaign in the poor marginalized areas.
Sallaam started his speech by thanking Allah for the graces he gave us, and then he talked how miserable the situation in Somalia is. He could not go to Somalia because he knows he will not afford seeing the gloomy miserable scene. When he called the team after they were back he found them unable to talk and their voices have changed, he thought they were sick or got infected, but that was their trauma! He said that the food bank of Egypt relies on domestic donors, but how can he found a food bank in Somalia. He cannot send Somalia food from the food bank of Egypt as he has to take the approval from each and every donor, but he promised to make a sub-account for donors.
Sallaam emphasized on the vital role of the media and called all journalists there to spread what they have seen to the whole world in order to take a serious action to save the Somalis. He recited the Quranic verse; “Then, on the doomsday, ye will be asked concerning pleasure.”
Hanan Turk, who has gone to Gaza, Iraq and Darfur before, said that what she saw there is much worse than anything she has seen anywhere. She was traumatized at the armed kids of the same age of her kids. Turk said that Egypt after the revolution is now having a weaker economy but is strong enough to help Somalia.
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| In Islam in Action's second visit both the prominent retired football player Nader el-Sayed- former goalkeeper of the Egyptian national football team. |
Nader el- Sayed linked the Egyptian revolution by aiding Somalia. He said it erupted not just to topple a regime, but to remove borders. In the past regime we-Egyptians- used to pay no attention to the Muslims, Christians, or Arabs outside Egypt, until we started to pay no attention to each other. But this is not an inherent trait of ours. The suffering of every Somali is the suffering of every Egyptian.
Tahawy at the end said, “Our goal is to make Somalis reach subsistence, and keeping the rest of the Somali population by stopping the deaths.”
We are close to Adha feast, we have to send them our sacrifices; they see no meat. Somali mothers cook bananas and their kids drink bananas’ soup!
Ayman Abed started his speech by mentioning that Founding Islamic Relief was done by a group of Egyptian students learning in England when a famine hit in Somalia in 1984. He then said that $10 is enough for each Somali to eat for a whole month. He emphasized that donations reach them, but their disaster needs much more donations. All relief is about 15% of their need. They need wills, livestock, and agriculture. He was optimistic and said that he noticed that situation there in the second visit was better, or actually less heinous than the first visit, thanks to the