More than OMR500,000 raised from donations this Ramadan

Muscat: Donations amounting to more than OMR500,000 have been raised during Ramadan 2022, through donate.om. Donors can use the website to make contributions to registered charities in Oman.

More than 21,000 donors contributed through the site to 72 charities across Oman. They include national organisations such as Al Rahma Association for Motherhood and Childhood, the Oman Charitable Organisation and the Omani Bahjah Orphan Society.

Local organisations, including charity teams in Nizwa, Ibri, Mudhaibi, Mussanah, Saham, Suwaiq and many others have also received donations through donate.om.

Other volunteer groups such as the Environment Society of Oman, the Oman Cancer Association and the Association of Early Intervention for Children with Special Needs also benefited from donate.om.

Dar Al Atta’a received the maximum money through donate.om: Some 3,500 people made donations amounting to a total of more than OMR 35,000, while Al Rahma Association also received similar amounts: More than OMR34,000 came in from 3,714 donors.

The Oman Charitable Organisation also received more than OMR 34,000 with 2,019 people pledging funds to the charity through donate.om.

The Oman Charitable Organisation announced last week the opening of volunteer registrations to help with collecting donations for iftar during Ramadan.

Volunteers for the purpose are also present across several locations in Muscat, including Muscat Grand Mall, Nesto Al Maabela, Mall of Oman and the Mall of Muscat.

“Despite the removal of many precautionary measures and the improvement of economic conditions, the number of needy families, those laid off from their jobs and those in debt is also increasing, so, we are still spending a lot of money to help poor families and other aid programmes,” said Dr Shamsa Al Harthi from Dar Al Atta’a.

“Last year, the total value of the donations we received was more than OMR3 million and we expect to get more this year so that we can help more needy people and implement many aid programmes for various groups of society,” she added.

To build the Al Rahma Charitable Centre, the ‘Your Rial – One Million’ campaign was launched to collect a million Rials in donations, but the donation of a single Rial is also welcome. The project was one of the plans of late Rahma Al Musafer, who passed away last February and was known as the ‘Lady of Giving’. The project will contribute towards financing various progammes to provide assistance to about 1,700 families.

“We witnessed great participation under the campaign,” said Warda Al Badi from Al Rahma Association. “We will continue to spread awareness about this campaign among private sector institutions so that they can support us through their social responsibility initiatives, in addition to donations received by community individuals.”

Among local charities, the Zakat Committee of Seeb received more than OMR60,000 in donations. Other zakat committees such as the ones in Amerat, Suwaiq and Nizwa received more than OMR20,000 each.

Mahmoud Al Jamudi, head of the media committee in the Nizwa Charitable Team, said: “The team launched a number of charitable initiatives during the month of Ramadan, including the Iftar initiative for students, which aims to provide breakfast and dinner for college students coming from outside the state. Meals are provided with contributions from society and companies in Nizwa.

“We have a number of other initiatives, including the ‘Atta’ programme to raise OMR one million to cover the costs of the association’s charitable works. The association also completed the distribution of food baskets to 1,400 orphans and needy families, and also launched the annual Maskani initiative, which aims to build three houses for needy families during the year, each home valued at OMR30,000.”

Furthermore, the well-known Fak Kurba initiative continues for the ninth season. The initiative aims to collect financial donations for release of prisoners who are insolvent and involved in civil cases, including labour and legal disputes. This year, Fak Kurba initiative seeks to get released 910 prisoners.