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Members of the Thirst Quenchers group, who are well known for distributing water and soft drinks to construction workers during the hot summer afternoons, have begun distributing food to the poor and needy during Ramadan.
They spend the morning of the first Saturday of Ramadan distributing baskets of non-perishable food items to around 350 villagers in Sitra, Karranah, Manama, Bani Jamrah, Ginistan and Hamala.
In the coming weeks they are visiting various labour camps around the country and treating the residents to cooked Iftar meals.
Eager to serve and take the spirit of Ramadan forward, they organised sponsorship from philanthropists and corporates and took help from friends and acquaintances to identify the needy families.
Leading on the enterprise is Bahraini Fatima Yousif, 22, who works as claims assistant at the Trust Tree Insurance. She said they first approached Lulu Hypermarket who gave 100 baskets of items like rice, dal, flour, oil and other assorted items free of cost and gave another 240 at a discount.
Fatima said: "It all came about from the thought that we have to do something worthwhile during Ramadan. Working with thirst quenchers is different because we are from all communities and working together for people in need. It helps us get over differences and increases bonding and gives a wonderful feeling. I remember handing over a bottle of water to a garbage collector who said, 'Thank you sister'.
"When we work in our offices and spend our days in air conditioned homes, we can never understand what these poor people who work in the open go through.
"During Ramadan all our volunteers will gather in one of our member's houses. This Saturday, we first loaded the baskets into different cars, a process that took over two-hours of the morning, and got divided into groups who were allocated different areas to cover.
"To avoid any confusion and language barriers, every group was also given a map and was accompanied by a local person."
Fatima said initially they were able to organise Iftaar meals for just two of the Saturdays. Then her own company came forward and the group will be extending their warm basket of good wishes on all weekends of Ramadan.
The food packets have been sponsored by Lulu Hypermarket, Trust Tree Insurance and philanthropist Vijay Balur, while Coca Cola has sponsored the soft drinks.
Thirst quenchers founder, Leila Rajkumar, calls it a non-partisan group formed loosely by young people of all nationalities who believe in having fun while serving the community. She said: "The young are full of energy and enthusiasm and with a little direction they can achieve wonders."
To contact thirst quenchers or join in their activities email them on thirstquenchers@gmail.com
