by Ashira Weiss – Lubavitch.com
Today Rabbi Yisroel and Chaya Uzan delivered the 770th box of food supplies to families starving after the COVID shutdown left them without any source of income.
Each box has 17 kilograms of food, a value of around $100, enough to feed a family with five children for at least a full week. Chabad Aid, Chabad of Nigeria’s humanitarian NGO organized the food drive.
Though Chabad Aid’s programming usually centers around education and development, the Uzans began a food drive when they saw how devastating the COVID shutdown was to the people all around Abuja where they are based, many of whom live off their income day by day. “We can’t just sit in our home and protect ourselves. When we see people around us starving we have to do what we can to help,” Yisroel told Lubavitch.com.
The Israeli Embassy to Nigeria partnered with Chabad Aid in this campaign and Ambassador Shimon Ben Shoshan and embassy staff helped with the deliveries which were timed to coincide with the end of Ramadan when traditionally, Muslim families celebrate with large meals.
In appreciation President Muhammadu Buhari sent a member of his family to assist with the deliveries. Community leaders invited Yisroel and Chaya and Ambassador Ben Shoshan to the Central Mosque of Abuja, perhaps the first time a Rabbi and Israeli Ambassador are in the mosque, to receive thanks.
Next week Chabad Aid will begin a campaign to deliver 10,000 hygiene kits to educate children at orphanages and in villages around Abuja about personal hygiene and protecting themselves and their families from infection.
Thank you. This is so inspiring. We are our brother’s and sister’s keepers.
Absolutely what we should be doing these days, spreading love and kindness!
Why does it appear that each of these women is giving a coin to the man on the left?
According to Rabbi Uzan, this distribution was just for widows and their families. There is unfortunately so much need in Nigeria, as so many families are without income and starving that it was necessary to create a control to ensure that all the intended recipients received their packages. So the Uzans initiated a token system for this specific distribution. Each woman was given a token which she handed to the volunteer in order to receive her box of food.
Best shluchim ever!!!