|
Muslim Relief Efforts Respond To Albanian Crisis
by Dina Rashed
CHICAGO, May 25 (IslamOnline) - relief work conducted by Islamic charitable organizations have been working intensively to alleviate the sufferings of Albanian Muslims fleeing their homes under the pressure of the Macedonian government.
The Chicago-based Global Relief Foundation (GRF), one of the leaders in Islamic relief work worldwide, has carried out a concentrated campaign there sending, with other agencies, shipments of medical aid, clothes, blankets, personal hygiene equipment and food worth nearly $100,000, said Khaled Diab, GRF's medical relief coordinator.
Most of the material was purchased from neighboring European countries and sent to the areas of conflict.
"One of the features of the relief work in this crisis is the mutual and highly organized cooperation between all the Islamic agencies and organizations involved," said Diab.
Various relief organizations have formed the Islamic Relief Council in Kosova to organize their cooperation by pooling resources in order to maximize the impact of their humanitarian work.
In the town of Ferizaj, on the Kosovar-Macedonian border, GRF has been bringing its shipments of supplies and humanitarian aid to the local center of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), which also served as base station for medical treatment of refugees by Muslim physicians who volunteer their services to the GRF.
Amir Hassan, member of Doctors World Wide, a relatively new organization formed by Muslim physicians around the globe to bring their services to areas experiencing conflict worldwide, has been on a GRF mission to the Albanian border and reported that there were very few qualified hospitals in the area, and that surgical facilities are almost limited to Pristina.
During his mission, he witnessed how the Macedonian government wiped out whole villages populated by Muslim Albanians.
Future GRF missions include sending other Muslim physicians from Boston in the very near future, and later from Chicago. The Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA) is expected to provide them with donated necessary medical supplies for their mission.
But because of the gravity of the situation, the organization hopes to find more medical professionals volunteers to participate in its mission, Diab said.
GRF has permanent medical teams based in clinics throughout Gjakova, Kosova and Albania.
|
