13 August 2010

BEIRUT: This Ramadan, Muslim and Christian orphans from across the country will be attending an iftar banquet in a bid to enhance national unity.

“Iftar al-Ahebba,” – Arabic for “The Iftar of the Loved Ones” – is one among several activities organized by Al-Mabarrat Foundation to celebrate Ramadan.

Mohammad Baqer Fadlallah, the general manager of Al-Mabarrat, founded by his late brother Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, outlined to The Daily Star a number of activities that the association embarks upon during Ramadan.

They are collecting donations to buy the “Eid al-Fitr presents” – which will mark the end of the fasting month – for the orphans and will hold “Iftar Banquets” to which people from all across the country will be invited.

Fadllallah, one of the highest authorities of Shiite Islam with a following that extends beyond Lebanon to the Gulf and Central Asia, died last month after a long battle with illness.

“This year the Sayyed [late Fadlallah] is not attending with us the iftar banquets,” said Baqer painfully.

Huge portraits of the late marjaa are still hanging around Al-Mabarrat’s general administration office in the Ghobeiry neighborhood of Beirut’s southern suburbs, with banners expressing sorrow and grief for the loss.

Al-Mabarrat, established in 1978, comprises a number of educational, health care, cultural and social institutions.

It relies on donations along with the revenues of some of the institutions it owns to run the different bodies of the association.

“In the holy month of Ramadan, people seek to please God through supporting an orphan, and we are trying to tell some of society’s segments that there are hungry people,” said Baqer Fadlallah.

Asked about what he would seek from donors during the holy month, Fadlallah called upon all Muslims and Christians to support the orphans of Al-Mabarrat in accordance with the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Prophet Mohammad.

He stressed that his association welcomed orphans belonging to different religious sects.

“Orphans do not belong to one religion or sect, and our doors are open to all orphans everywhere,” he said.

“Sayyed Fadlallah had long considered that it is the humanness of the human being that drives us to serve him,” added his brother.

“Although our institutions are located in areas that are demographically inhabited by Shiite Muslims, our institutions serve a number of individuals from other Muslim sects along with Christians,” he said.

The deceased top Shiite cleric was well-known for his reliance on astronomical calculations in determining the start of Ramadan.

Following the establishment of the first orphanage in 1978, similar structures and other institutions were constructed in a number of Lebanese areas.

Baqer highlighted the diverse kind of services delivered by Al-Mabarrat.

“Other institutions do not see this diversity,” he said.

Besides nine orphanages housing 3,800 inmates, Al- Mabarrat includes 15 schools and six vocational training academies with 21,500 students, an institution for educating the handicapped including 450 students, four hospitals and medical centers, 40 cultural and religious centers, an infirmary, a teachers college, an educational diagnosis-center and a social services office providing financial and in-kind aid to 7,000 families.

The last academic year saw the integration of 350 handicapped students in the Mabarrat academic schools.

“We follow up on the orphans until they finish their university studies,” said Baqer, adding that all of the orphans who graduated are enjoying “social security.”

Remarkably, Baqer noted that the association has opened a recruitment office in an attempt to employ the disabled graduates of Al-Mabarrat.

“We held meetings with representatives of commercial firms in a bid to secure jobs for the handicapped,” he said.

Baqer promised that the institutions founded by late Sayyed Fadlallah “will remain strong with doubled efforts.”

“The Sayyed built the Mabarrat as an institution and he called for running productive institutions so that the association achieves self sufficiency and keeps operating for a long time,” he added.

Copyright The Daily Star 2010.