It's 5:4pm, with only 40 minutes to go till iftar. The streets are almost empty, as nearly everyone has already hurried in time for the azzan (call to prayer). Still, some people are still on the streets at this 'critical' time of day in Ramadan. Many young Egyptians who leave their places of work at the last minute are given handfuls of dates, water and bottles of sweet Oriental drinks to break their fast when the cannon goes off for iftar. The food and drinks are distributed to them by volunteers in the street. Mohamed Essam, one of these volunteers, spend the iftar hour distributing small packets of dates and tamarind juice to pedestrians and motorists in Heliopolis. "This is my fourth year helping with the street iftars," Essam told the Egyptian Mail while distributing his small packets and juice to passersby in Baghdad Street, el-Korba. "It's something that I'm truly passionate about, helping those who are late getting home and don't want to break their fast at the mawaaid el-rahman [charity tables]." Egypt is the most populous Arab country, with around 80 million citizens and a Muslim majority. Hence, the 30 days of Ramadan are considered to be a nation-uniting month for people all over the country. That's why Essam always likes to help during the holy fasting month, despite his own heavy workload and family commitments. The 27-year-old civil servant finishes his daily shift at 4pm, hurries back home to get the packets and juice prepared by his mother and two sisters and then runs back to the street to "live his joy of helping others". "About ten of us, myself and my friends who live near me, meet at around 5pm to start our daily mission," says Omar Selim, a 19-year-old neighbour of Essam's, as he sips some water from a plastic cup. "Helping someone break their fast means a huge thawab [reward] insha'allah, and that's what I'm after because Ramadan is a special time of year." Such activities are sometimes individual initiatives, like those of Selim, Essam and their friends, with one or more person donating their food, time and effort to doing good. Meanwhile, there are similar initiatives organised by NGOs or charitable groups, which distribute their volunteers in different districts throughout the capital. One of these groups is ‘Forsan el-Kheir' (Knights of Goodwill), a charitable NGO operating mainly in Hadaaiq el-Qubba, which gives its volunteers all the things they need to distribute and even decides the exact place for each of them to work. "I go to the Underground at 6pm and distribute dried fruits and soft drinks in the ladies-only car," says Asmaa Alieddin, 23. "It's a priceless feeling when a child or old woman breaks her fast with these items and pray for me. I feel deeply blessed and thank Allah that I have got involved with this NGO." This student also used to distribute packets of dried dates with prayer leaflets in Cairo University, when Ramadan fell in the academic year ��" this is the first year for decades for the holy month to fall entirely during the academic holiday. "I spend my time praying and trying to be good," stresses Dina Mosharafa, also 23, while standing beside a maidet el-rahman [charity table] in Tanta Street. "Being on vacation, I help my father with this charity table. While some people distribute the meals inside the tent, I stand in the street to give people rushing home a plastic cup of water and a few dates." Inas Mohamed, a 25-year-old engineer whose work finishes at 5pm, can hardly break her fast at home. For this young woman, people with water, juice and dried dates are messengers of mercy from God. "It's madly hot this Ramadan and by 4pm I'm starting to feel terribly thirsty," Inas says after breaking her fast in the street. "This shows how merciful and good people are: they allocate their money, time and effort to help those that they don't even know." With her long dark hijab (headscarf), Inas can hardly be thought not to be a Muslim, so targeting her with water and dates is kind of normal, but the really interesting thing is what Catherine Moreen, a 37-year-old American tourist, has to say. "People keep giving me food and drinks at iftar time and it's something I really appreciate," Catherine explains. "This makes me happy. I feel that I'm part of the furniture, one of the family." It's Catherine's first time in Egypt and her trip has just happened to coincide with Ramadan. What she has seen here has changed her opinion about the whole country. "At the start I was afraid and couldn't understand what exactly the young guys were putting in the plastic cups, but I then realised that it's an Egyptian tradition," Catherine told this newspaper. Breaking the fast in the street happens accidentally for a lot of people, but others have no choice. A soldier who guards the Presidential Palace (also in el-Qubba) and only gives his name as Mohamed, says that people passing by with drinks or food are his only hope of breaking the fast, because he can't leave his shift and gets very little to break his fast with anyway. "People bring me dried dates and even boxes containing dinner from the mawaaid el-rahman or something else that might be useful for me," Mohamed, in his early thirties, says gratefully. It's a similar scenario with traffic policemen, who would probably be entirely forgotten in the streets, if it weren't for some do-gooders taking care of them at iftar in Ramadan. In this country where over 40 per cent of the population are thought to be living below the poverty line, the tradition of distributing food at iftar time is not linked to poverty or wealth, because both poor and rich alike are happy to help.
