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Helping hands

February 26 - March 03 , 2020
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Gulf Weekly Helping hands

Gulf Weekly Mai Al Khatib-Camille
By Mai Al Khatib-Camille

A group of big-hearted individuals, that have taken humanitarian relief projects into their own hands, will be launching a street food festival tomorrow in Dilmunia Island to raise funds for their worthy causes.

Ayadi Relief, which means ‘hands of relief’, is a youth-led international humanitarian NGO that was established in 2013 to feature creative fundraising events in a bid to support vulnerable communities across the MENA region and the island they all call home. They specialise in rehabilitation projects specifically in the fields of housing and education. Internationally, they have helped build a school in Djibouti and water wells in Djibouti and Somalia.

The first project that the non-profit organisation worked on, that they still fund until today, is Baitkum Baitna which translates from Arabic to meaning ‘your home is our home’. It is a charitable youth project that aims to renovate, maintain and restore the homes of those in need. The project has already aided in renovating more than 40 Bahraini homes. Festivals such as STREAT, which will run from tomorrow to Saturday and again from March 5 to 7, help support these causes.

Shaikha Showaiter, the Bahraini general manager for Ayadi Relief, said: “Since the very beginning, we always wanted the work to be different and creative. One of the first decisions we made was to set a policy that 100 per cent of all the donations would go towards the projects without deducting any admin fees, so the donors can see clearly where their donations went.

 “We launched this festival in 2016 because we wanted to form a creative way of fundraising. In this festival you can volunteer, attend, participate and enjoy its bountiful features all for the benefit of the organisation and its projects.”

And this year’s festival, which is in its fifth edition, is said to be bigger and better than ever with several activities for young and old to enjoy alike.







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