CAIRO - Home delivery is a service, which many housewives are so happy about. But on the other hand there are housewives and young women who take it upon themselves to deliver meals they have prepared with their own hands to the poor. Ramadan, the lunar month, which symbolises benevolence and empathy, usually witnesses a great deal of charitable activities. Most prominent in the past few years were street banquets at iftar (breaking the fast at sunset) time and Ramadan bags. People have noticed that “mercy” banquets have somewhat diminished this year, perhaps because of the economic difficulties in the post-revolution period, which has affected businessmen, the major donators of these banquets. However, the enthusiasm of young people to make this country a better place has prompted many to turn their attention to charity work. Charitable societies nowadays engage an army of volunteers who are willing to lend a hand in many activities like packing food bags, collecting money door-to-door and sorting out second-hand clothes to be distributed to the needy just days before the feast of Eid, which comes directly after Ramadan. Despite the exhausting task of weighing kilos of rice, sugar, lentils and packing bags with several other items, Nabila Shams , l9, is thrilled by the idea of having a hand in drawing a smile on the face of a poor family. “The room where we work is terribly hot and filled with large amounts of food ready for packing,” she said, adding that the spirit of co-operation manifested among the entire team of volunteers, made the task so much easier. Iman Hanza preferred to be in direct contact with the needy. For four years, she has spared a few hours of her time each week, to deliver cooked meals to destitute areas she never expected to see, in Doweiqa, Ain Shams and the “Leprosy Colony”. Iman, however, found that home delivery was not a job for girls. “I usually go in the company of a mixed group of young people, but never alone,” she told Al Masry Al-Youm independent daily. “Now I know how hard it is to be a delivery man.” She realised that this job needed patience, endurance and physical strength, and even more so when fasting. She noticed however a change in the quality of meals given away this Ramadan due to an unprecedented increase in prices. In the past there were vegetables, meat, rice and salad. Today, she added, these meals were limited to rice and meat. In the opinion of Ahmed Bahgat, another young volunteer, there was a great difference between what he termed commercial and charitable home delivery. “In the latter, a well-off person serves the poor, while in the former it is the other way round,” he told the paper. In any case, Bahgat believed that what really counted was the spirit with which one served others, whether voluntarily or in a paid job.
