The "Competitors" Team Visits Qatar Charity Projects in Kyrgyzstan

Qatar University team and QC delegation of volunteers visited Mauritania as part of the "Competitors" Radio Program in order to assess the field needs and get acquinted with the location of the development project. This visit is as part of the competition held with the Education City Team based on the humanitarian work innovation standards.

Based on the Mauritania’s development needs and after deliberations with QC office in Nouakchott  relevant to its intervention priorities and plans implemented in Mauritania, a multi-service center shall be established in Janaba, Brakna region. This area is classified as one of the poorest areas and is known as the "triangle of poverty". The project's total value is QR 1,100,000 and it includes a school, a clinic and an artesian well for the benefit of 25,000 people. The Director of the Information Department, Mr. Ahmed Saleh Al Ali, headed the delegation of Qatar Charity. This delegation included Qatar University team and social media activists.

The Qatari Embassy

The delegation visited the Qatari embassy in Nouakchott and met with the ambassador of the State of Qatar in Nouakchott, Mr. Abdulrahman Bin Ali Al Ajaj Al Kubaisi, who highlighted the huge development projects implemented by the State of Qatar, the Qatari organizations and the Qatari key figures in Mauritania. These projects are implemented in various fields including water, social housing, the health sector, education and social assistance provided to vulnerable groups. At the end of the meeting, QC delegation provided a souvenir to His Excellency the Qatari Ambassador for his great efforts related to supporting Qatar Charity and the Qatari organizations operating in Mauritania.

Visiting the Residents of Janaba

The team land travelled from Nouakchott to the targeted area, Janaba that is about 500 km away, 50 km of which are not paved, where they met the beneficiaries and witnessed the deterioration of health services and the village's need for water and infrastructure for education and others.

The center will add value to the region's residents as it will include a new school and hospital instead of the old narrow and dilapidated buildings that were not well-equipped. Pregnant women living in that area may need to travel about 90 kilometers by car to get to the nearest hospital, which threatens their lives and their babies’ lives.  The artesian well shall be equipped with a water tank and solar-powered pump, and will provide a drinking water to thousands of thirsty people during summer.

The Janaba residents hold a reception ceremony for Qatar Charity and the Qatari volunteers involved in Competitors Program. This ceremony was attended by Mr. Mohammed AL Mustafa Wald Mohammed Qazi, the municipality mayor, who welcomed the guests in his opening speech, asserting the residents' urgent need for support as they are suffering bad health and educational circumstances. Qazi extended his sincere thanks to the people of Qatar for supporting their brothers in Mauritania and other Arab and Islamic countries.

In a speech on behalf of the delegation, Mr. Abdullah Nasser Abdullah Al-Tamimi said that the Qatari people, philanthropists, donors and Qatar Charity hope all the best for the Mauritanian people, and thank their warm reception.

The Next Visit

Mr. Ahmed Saleh Al Ali, the Director of QC Information Department assured that the visit realized its objectives and left a good impression on the members of Qatar University delegation that made an impressive field visits. The delegation will talk about these experiences in the "competitors" weekly live radio program that starts at eight o'clock on Tuesday evening. The program is transmitted over Al Quran Al Kareem Show. Al Ali pointed out that the rival Education City Team will visit Sri Lanka at the end of this month to get to know the place of its development project and will identify the beneficiaries' needs hoping that the listeners of Al Quran Al Kareem Radio would cooperate with the rival teams to support the charity work.

Adding Value

The Director of QC office in Mauritania, Mr. Idriss Al-Sahel received the delegation at QC office in Nouakchott and made a presentation about QC's accomplishments in Mauritania. He added that the Qatari philanthropists spent more than QR 25 million during the last year contributing to the water, health, education and social affairs projects. He mentioned that the number of sponsored people was doubled during the last two years to reach 3,000 sponsored individuals.

The delegation paid a visit to a number of QC's projects including the Deaf Rehabilitation and Education Center in Nouakchott, where 500 deaf people will benefit from the project. The delegation also visited a sewing center, which is sponsored by QC and supervised by its partner, the "Philanthropists without Borders" Association. This center provides job opportunities for poor widows and divorcees.

Qatar Charity has launched the third round of "Competitors" weekly radio program, which is produced in partnership with Qatar Holy Quran Radio and the participation of universities, colleges and academies students in Qatar. Aljazeera Café in the Cultural District “Katara” hosted the celebration to announce the beginning of the third round of the competition between Aspire Academy Team and the Leaders Academy Team. Moreover, both the Community College Team and the College of the North Atlantic Team, who competed in the second round, and succeeded in building three schools for Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and 9 hospitals and health facilities in Kyrgyzstan, were also honored during the ceremony.

Mr. Nayef Al-Shammari, Head of Leaders Academy Team, said that they decided to participate in the third round of Competitors Program sponsored by Qatar Charity (International Charity Organization) after making sure of the nobility of the competition’s goal, noting that the Leaders Academy Team came to compete in the competition relying on the confidence of participating students.

Excellent experience and skill

Dr. Ali Ayoub, Head of Aspire Academy Team, said that Aspire Academy students are pioneers in leadership field as they learnt a lot from the true Islamic values and the Aspire Academy values which are based on respect and responsibility. Competitors Program will constitute an incentive to our students whom we expect to win in the competition due to their excellent experience and skill.

Enriching experience

On the occasion of winning the first place, Mr. Munadi Alka’bi, Head of Community College Team, said that the most important thing achieved by the team is participating in the charity work field. Alka’bi pointed out that winning the first place is not as important as providing education to 1500 students of our Syrian brothers through building three schools in Lebanon. That is the true winning!

Alka’bi added that participation in this competition had a good impact on the team and added a lot to their knowledge.

Distinguishing mark

Mr. Abdul Rahman Saleh Alashqar, Head of the College team of the North Atlantic, congratulated the winning team, pointing out that the College team of the North Atlantic fought in a fair competition with a noble goal. Although it came in the second place but still achieved the desired goal including marketing for building seven hospitals in Kyrgyzstan, which became nine hospitals later, thanks to the great efforts of the team. We left a distinguished mark, which could be seen through the broad smiles on the children’s and adults’ faces.

Qatar Charity implements Developmental and Humanitarian Projects in Kyrgyzstan. These projects are carried out in various fields including health, water, sanitation, housing, mosques' building, distribution of wheelchairs to people with special needs, and income-generating projects.   

Areas of Intervention

In coordination with the Ministry of Health of Kyrgyzstan, Qatar Charity builds a fully equipped health center in the province of Jalal-Abad in southwestern Kyrgyzstan, constructs a mosque and offers 3 ambulances to health centers in some regions.  Another 6 health centers will be built  in the most needy regions of Kyrgyzstan, as people suffer from a significant shortage of health services,  high rate of maternal mortality during childbirth and high mortality rate among children under 5.

QC begins building homes for four families of the sponsored orphans, each house consists of two rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. The houses will be completed by the end of the month of Ramadan. QC also carries out water projects including drilling surface wells, extending 4- kilometer water networks to villages far from the cities, in addition to providing wheelchairs to poor persons with disabilities.   

As part of the economic empowerment projects, Qatar Charity has distributed cattle and sewing machines to help reduce poverty in this Asian republic

Various projects

"Qatar Charity has developed a solid plan to identify the regions that are in bad need of developmental and humanitarian projects. As a result, QC implemented various income-generating projects to reduce poverty and unemployment among the population of 6 million in Kyrgyzstan," Mr. Khalid Wakeel, Director of the Qatar Charity Office in Kyrgyzstan said.

He pointed out that Qatar Charity sponsors about 2,000 female and male orphans in 7 governorates across Kyrgyzstan. 920 female orphans are benefiting from health, educational and recreational care provided by Qatar Charity to orphans around the world. He assured that Central Asian countries contributed to the enrichment of the Islamic civilization with thousands of scientists, such as Bukhari, Muslim, Al-Nasa'i, Ibn Sina and Al-Farabi, so it is very important to build strong relations and ties with them.

Statistics

Statistics indicate that the percentage of those living below the poverty line is 32% of the total population of Kyrgyzstan, and the percentage of unemployed people is 20%, forcing one million Kyrgyz to migrate to Russia and Kazakhstan and other countries searching for work. Kyrgyzstan has a population of 6 million spreading over ​​200,000 square kilometers, mostly mountain areas, where 66% live in rural areas and 34% in cities. Kyrgyzstan's production depends on agriculture and livestock.

At the beginning of spring, Kyrgyzstan yearly influences by natural factors and climatic changes, as snow begins melting causing landslides and disasters in the agricultural areas and sweeping many rural houses and resulting victi

As part of its "Give and Shine Through" campaign in 1438H, Qatar Charity continues to organize breakfast and distribute Ramadan food baskets in Mauritania, Kyrgyzstan and Somalia, benefiting tens of thousands of fasting people in these countries.

Those who are sponsored by QC and their families received special attention in the fasting program, where an important part of the program was dedicated to orphans and their families.

Khalid Abdullah Al Yafei, Director of Operations Department, stated, "QC has been keen to focus on disaster-affected groups such as in Somalia due to drought, remote rural areas as in Mauritania and the poorest groups in Kyrgyzstan.” He thanked the donors in Qatar who have been credited for supporting the people of those countries.

Mauritania

In Mauritania, QC has provided more than 31,000 ready-to-eat meals and food baskets that will benefit more than 20,000 fasting people at a cost of around 500,000 QR.

In the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott and various areas of Mauritanian interior, Iftar meals and food baskets were distributed. Moreover, QC’s office benefited from the experience of organizing a Ramadan tent in the past two years and increased the number to 3 tents, erected in the most densely populated areas of the capital, allowing hundreds of fasting people to take advantage of the tents of QC.

Specific increase

The Director of QC’s office in Mauritania, Mr. Idris Al-Sahel, assured the importance of reaching many remote areas that benefited from the fasting program this year, such as Hodh Ech Chargui, the Far East of Mauritania and Tiris Zemmour in the north-most, in addition to the south and center areas in Trarza and Brakna Regions. Besides, partners have been expanded to reach as many needy people as possible, drawing on the expertise of local partners.

Kyrgyzstan

Starting with the capital and other areas in Kyrgyzstan, QC, as part of the fasting program, distributed food baskets in different regions of Kyrgyzstan to 1307 families from the sponsored families of orphans. Thus, the total number of beneficiaries of the fasting program will be 6,500 people.

The Iftar dining tables were accompanied with generous local donations. That is, in the central mosque, 2,000 Iftar hot meals are offered daily by a donation from the Qatari benefactors.

After receiving the Ramadan baskets, the mothers of the beneficiary families sent a thank-you message to the benefactors in Qatar for their support to their Muslim brothers in Kyrgyzstan and for their sponsorship of the orphans who found in QC a substitute for the parents.

Somalia

QC’s office in Somalia has also organized group Iftar Dining Tables for thousands of Somalis in different parts of Somalia, particularly Hargeisa, Bosaso, and Mogadishu, where the number of people displaced by drought in villages and towns is increasing.

The fasting breakfast program in Somalia included distributing ready meals to 500 needy families in Mogadishu, as well as organizing a group breakfast event for 200 students sponsored by QC in Somalia. In addition, Mr. Abdulhakim Hassan Ashkir, State Minister for Awqaf and Religious Affairs, and the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Higher Education, Mr. Ismail Yusuf Hassan, participated in the event.

The Minister of Awqaf and Religious Affairs of Somalia praised the efforts of the benefactors in Qatar, their generosity and their lasting sympathy with Somalia, stressing the importance of the group Iftar especially for students.

In the presence of the Minister of Health of Kyrgyzstan, QC has delivered three ambulances to three medical clinics of the Ministry of Health of Kyrgyzstan in various parts of the country, which will help 15,000 people to get to medical centers.

The ambulances were distributed to the medical centers in the area of Alabouk in Jalal-Abad province, Darout Korgon in Osh province, and Karl Marx village in Alam Aldin area because the population of these areas was suffering from lack of transportation for patients, and the difficulty of mobility, due to the rugged mountain roads, particularly when the snow is falling.

The summit of humanity

Minister of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic, Talantbek Batyraliev, praised the generosity of the people of Qatar, whose Humanitarian Development began in Kyrgyzstan. He praised QC's efforts to provide ambulances to people in areas that were in dire need, pointing out that this gesture is regarded as the peak of expressing humanity. The isolation of the southern regions, especially during snowfall, will be eliminated due to the importance of medical services and helping people get them.

Areas of support

For his part, Mr. Khaled Wakil, Director of the Qatar Charity Office in Kyrgyzstan stated, "QC has handed over three ambulances to medical centers in different areas of southern Kyrgyzstan, after its office there identified the most needy of such vehicles.” He also confirmed that QC's vision for development and humanity is based on an equilateral triangle: supporting the health, educational and relief sectors. In the future, it will implement projects in these sectors, in cooperation with the concerned ministries and government agencies in Kyrgyzstan.

Various meetings

After the handover of the ambulances to the Ministry of Health, QC held a series of meetings with several Kyrgyz ministers from different sectors to determine the priorities and areas of humanitarian and development intervention that QC intends to implement in this Asian Republic. It began with a meeting with the Minister of Health and Director of International Relations, so as to coordinate the coming activities and the needs QC intends to provide in the health field.

There was another meeting with the Minister of Labor and Social Development, Isakunova Taalaigul, in which she expressed her satisfaction that QC has built houses for poor families. Furthermore, she asked for having a look at the design method, the number of rooms, facilities and the total area of each house and expressed her desire to attend the handover of the keys to the beneficiary families when celebrating the completion of the projects currently under way.

Another a meeting with the Minister of Education, Kudayberdieva Gulmira, who congratulated QC for opening its office in Kyrgyzstan. She also praised QC’s interest in the educational aspect and its follow-up on the educational affairs of the 2000 orphans sponsored by QC. “We look forward to QC’s projects concerning the education sector,” she said.

They also met Kyrgyz Minister of Justice, Akhmetov Uran, who reviewed QC's activities, praising its commitment to the local laws and coordinating with government agencies and other local organizations in carrying out their humanitarian activities.

Call for cooperation

It is noteworthy that the "Kyrgyz Red Crescent", in conjunction with the Federation of the Red Cross and the International Red Crescent, invited QC to attend the celebration of the 90th anniversary of founding the Kyrgyz Red Crescent. Earlier, a meeting was held with Director General of the National Red Crescent, Rustam Aleyev, at the Kyrgyz Red Crescent to exchange views and coordination on aspects of cooperation, especially their request to contribute to the relief items for the time being in as well as the recurrent suffering of Kyrgyzstan each year in spring and at the time of melting of snow that causes disasters near the mountains because of the sliding soil and floods, which often affect the southern regions, especially farmers and herders.

QC Office in Kyrgyzstan is currently preparing a Fasting Breakfast Project, which is expected to benefit 1200 poor families distributed in several provinces of Kyrgyzstan.