By Aliaa Nur Diyana
GOMBAK, 23 April 2022: IIUM held a special iftar in its campus here last Monday (18 April) exclusively for local and international students, encouraging needy students to participate as well.
This special iftar was based on collaboration between Kelab Sahabat Anak Malaysia (KSAM), Hadhrami Student Chapter IIUM, and ALSALAM Club IIUM, including the Youth of Strength and Happiness (YOSH) and Food For Hunger Organisation by MyFundAction.
This iftar took place at the cafe of Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences (KENMS) with 150 food packs provided for the students.
The objectives of this special iftar were to educate the communities to share their sustenance and resources in different forms, to share iftar food with the less fortunate, both local and international students, to celebrate international students, and strengthen their bond with the IIUM community, and to give exposure to the international students regarding the culture of Malaysians during the month of Ramadan.
Only twenty-five students managed to attend this special iftar due to the location of KENMS that is considered quite far away from the students’ mahallah.
The event started with the distribution of food packs to the twenty-five students, followed by the a sharing session with the facilitators of the event, who were also IIUM students.
Later, Quranic recitation (tadarus) between students, committees of the event, as well as the Presidents of the clubs in charge, was held until the moment of the breaking of fast, which they started lightly by eating dates.
Although the event exceeded the estimated time, students who took part in this event began their iftar together after the congregational Maghrib prayer and dispersed after the event ended.
The remaining food packs were later distributed to every mahallah after the taraweh prayer.
The involved clubs and MyFundAction (NGO) had organised a crowdfunding with the estimation of RM4,000 targeted collection for this special iftar.
With the purpose of fulfilling four Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) mainly to achieve Goal 1: Zero Hunger, Goal 2: Reduce Inequalities, Goal 3: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions and Goal 4: Good Health and Well-Being, the crowdfunding finally achieved the targeted collection two weeks before the special iftar began. ***