Hayat Plaza, Qatar Charity organize “Fast A Thom” event for non-Muslims

The event provides an opportunity to non-Muslims to experience fasting for one day during the holy month of Ramadan

Qatar Charity (QC) and Hayat Plaza, a shopping mall in Doha, organized the tenth edition of the “Fast A Thom” event under the slogan “You Fast, We Donate”, in which nearly 300 non-Muslim men and women from around 10 different nationalities participated.

The event, which was held as part of the “Ramadan Nights” programme organized by Hayat Plaza in cooperation with Qatar Charity, came to provide an opportunity to non-Muslims to experience fasting for one day during the holy month of Ramadan.

The “Fast A Thom” event aims at making participants aware of the rituals of Islam in general and fasting in particular, while supporting a humanitarian initiative at the same time. Qatar Charity and Hyatt Plaza donate QR 200 in lieu of each participant to the Qatar Autism Society.

The event had a variety of activities including an introduction to Islam, its basic principles, its high human values, fasting, and its goals. It also included a competition on fasting, the Holy Quran and Eid al-Fitr. An Iftar table was organized for all participants at Hyatt Plaza.

In his statement, Mohammed Yousuf Al Hawamdeh, head of the Marketing Department at Hayat Plaza, said, “We organize this event in the framework of human communication between the peoples to make expatriate communities members aware of the culture of the country in which they reside.”

An Iftar table, which was organized for all the participants, included a variety of food from seven significant restaurants at Hyatt Plaza, Al Hawamdeh added, pointing out the event witnessed the participation of 275 persons, while the target was only 200 people.

The participants expressed their happiness at taking part in the event, hoping it would continue in the coming years,  because it spreads love among all and facilitates understanding of the culture of fasting.

Anand Thapa, a Nepali citizen said: "I am always keen to participate in this event. This is fourth time I am taking part in it. I learnt from it to be patient, control myself, and interact with other people from different cultures across the world.

 For her part, Anmol, a homemaker, said, “Through this event, we came to know about the importance of Ramadan for Muslims as well as for non-Muslims, noting that Ramadan teaches us to love mankind, do good and help others.

Since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, Hyatt Plaza and Qatar Charity have organized various charitable and cultural activities, including the "Shop and Donate" campaign, which encourages shoppers to donate, in addition to many other initiatives and events.