Asad Hameed, Mohtamim Ishaat MKA Bulgaria
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat in Bulgaria was able to hold a large scale project on the occasion of Eid-ul-Adha across different regions of Bulgaria under the banner of Humanity First Germany over various days.
Food was provided to about 1,150 people in need. In Plovdiv, the second largest city of Bulgaria, a meeting was held with the Director of the Department for Social Politics, Ms Veselina Boteva, who provided a list of 14 centres in which Humanity First could help.
The list included various care homes for people with mental disabilities, dementia and physically disabled people along with people from old age homes, women’s shelters for homeless mothers with young children and orphanages. Both of the missionaries of Bulgaria, Abdullah Sahib and Jawad Uddin Uffan Sahib, met with the head of these centres and organised a lunch event with a high quality food menu, for which they were very happy and thankful.
For those physically unable to attend, the meal was served to their beds. A dinner was organised for homeless mothers with infants, young orphans and the elderly. The head of the centres and Deputy Mayor, Mr Georgi Tityukov himself was also present. Invitations were sent to the representatives of different NGOs, government officers and religious representatives.
The deputy mayor thanked Humanity First and said that this was the first time the children, mothers and the elderly were all together at one place and smiling. In Plovdiv, Humanity First was able to help a total of more than 600 people. The head of the old age home presented a letter of gratitude and a hand-made gift from elderly people towards Humanity First Germany and the children and old people recited poetry as a gesture of gratefulness.
The news about this event was also published in an online newspaper. In the village of Dolno Osenovo, Humanity First provided meat during the Eid-ul-Adha festival with a distribution to about 200 people in need. Similarly about 50 people were helped in Blagoevgrad and about 50 people the city of Mikrovo. In the village of Jigurovo, with the full support of Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Bulgaria and the cooperation of the mayor (who also provided a place and other facilities), a dinner for Eid-ul-Adha was held in the centre of the village. About 150 people from 4 different cities (Sofia, Blagoevgrad, Sandanski and Petrich) came, among which many were needy and poverty-stricken. Other religious representatives were also present.
The local people from the village volunteered for the preparations and worked very hard throughout the day. All the people thanked Humanity First for organising this event because it was the first time that they were able to celebrate Eid in that village. Th e mayor and people wished the same for the future.
After the event, about 100 food packets were also provided to the people who could not attend the event. At the end, a Bulgarian doctor who has previously helped in Humanity First projects announced that he would provide free health care check-ups under Humanity First in the village.
Following this, he voluntarily provided free health care checkups for a whole day, from 9am to 4:30pm. That day, many patients were attended to by Dr Dimitar Manikatov.
The medicines required by these patients have also been purchased for them.
May Allah grant health and prosperity to all those who worked tirelessly to ensure the success of these events as well as those who attended.