On Thursday, March 10, Islamic Relief aid workers responded to immense need and distributed food parcels to 500 impoverished families south of Cairo, Egypt, in the city of Minya.
More than 10 million Egyptians cannot meet their daily food needs, according to the United Nations.Impoverished Egyptians have been hard hit by spikes in the cost of their basic supplies such as rice, meat, vegetables and cooking oil. Vulnerable families are struggling to find enough food each day. They are becoming poorer and hungrier.
Islamic Relief is working to provide 2,000 families with basic food items.
This effort is helping people like Oum al-Hana, an 85-year-old widow. Her only income is about $11 a month given to her by a nearby mosque.
“I never thought that the day would come that I would not be able to go to the market and buy food,” she told an Islamic Relief aid worker. “Or that I would spend night over night with only a bite of bread and a glass of water. I cannot even remember the last time I tasted meat or the last time I ate cheese or drank milk. But what do they say, that ‘the hungry man always dreams of food’ … well, this exactly applies to me.
The parcels distributed by Islamic Relief include rice, sugar, macaroni, beans, lentils, salt, tea, tomato paste, cooking oil and canned meat. Each parcel weighs about 100 pounds and can feed five people for two months.
More food will be distributed March 12.
