Learn how to uplift the poor
friend al-hamad says he watched on the french channel a program about a swiss couple who went to cambodia and established two schools there, one for boys and the other for girls to provide vocational education for homeless children who worked at landfills to sort out materials.
the couple chose the school program to be vocational with a bit of a classic education, so their goal was to prepare children to quickly enter into demanding and income-generating professions, such as shaving, servers in restaurants, hotels, plumbing, repairing cars, etc., instead of teaching them where afghanistan is located, or who won the korean war.
al-hamad said the documentary showed how the couple’s efforts changed the lives of these children in a positive manner, and in a relatively short period of time.
if anyone browses the websites of charity societies, especially in the gulf countries to see what has been happening for half a century and until now, one will find that most of their activities are in the poorest countries of africa and asia – muslim countries in particular. the activities include caring for preachers, opening schools for teaching religion, drilling wells, and other simple charity activities.
some of them also extended their arms to the muslims in european countries, especially the poor such as bosnia, albania, and kosovo, away from the eyes of censorship at home.
christianity entered africa in more than one way and through more than one portal, the most influential of which was what was done by the missionaries, who in the early last century went to remote areas in africa to provide treatment and education to the inhabitants of african villages and lived with them in the most difficult circumstances.
these missionaries succeeded with patience and effort in evangelizing millions in the easiest and most effective manner without costing their societies and churches much money, and without deducting any money in favor of those in charge of them.
some of them also converted the languages of the african tribes from spoken to written using latin characters and made the bible the first book printed and read in their language, and so the bible’s words entered their hearts without much trouble. this is the real and effective evangelization, not the miserable means and methods we see from our community.
our charity societies, which have provided activities, are required to modernize their methods, focus on creating jobs for the unemployed in the countries in which they reside, and abandon their outdated traditional methods.
i know very well that what i am proposing here will be ignored, in addition to its difficulty, and therefore no one will pay attention to it.
note: we appreciate the central bank’s decision to prevent charity societies from sending money to their branches abroad, as there has been a lot of clamor over such an issue and it is time to stop such laxity.
