Thursday 28 / November / 2024
Muscat: The largest number of prisoners released within the Fak Kurba initiative was in the ninth edition, with more than 1,000 prisoners, the supervisor of the initiative and the Chairman of the Office of Legal Affairs, (OLA), said.
Speaking exclusively to Times of Oman, Dr. Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al-Zadjali, supervisor of the initiative and OLA’s Chairman, said that the largest number of debtors released during the ten editions of the Fak Kurba initiative since its inception was in the ninth edition of last year, 2022, when the number reached 1035 debtors, compared to the tenth edition of this year 2023, where the number amounted to 925 debtors.
Regarding the challenges they faced in Fak Kurba initiative during the ten editions, Dr. Al-Zadjali indicated that volunteer work is always accompanied by some challenges. First, the volunteer work of the Fak Kurba initiative relies heavily on lawyers and they are often busy because of their legal work, but during the period of the initiative, especially in the month of Ramadan, these lawyers give a lot of their time and give up their rest periods, alongside dedicating them to their own work, to ensure the success of this initiative. They work hard for the progress of the initiative’s work, in a way that also ensures the achievement of its noble goals.
Dr. Mohammed Al Zadjali also added that the other challenge is that the Fak Kurba initiative depends on collecting donations from the public and benefiting from them in releasing debtors, as collecting donations takes time and great effort, but thanks to the contributors, donors, people with good hearts and white hands, and with the participation of society, private and public institutions, and God Praise, there is a move towards achieving the goals of the initiative, and we hope that we will continue to do so with more effective participation, in a way that contributes to alleviating the suffering of the insolvent and the needy, for those who meet the conditions of the Fak Karba initiative.
Additionally, Dr. Al-Zadjali also stressed, that among the challenges, the sorting process in the Fak Kurba initiative is not an easy job due to the large number of debtors' cases, and therefore it takes time and effort to sort these numbers in a way that meet the conditions of the initiative.
Regarding the reason for stopping the exhibitions of Fak Kurba, Dr. Al-Zadjali said: “We used to do these exhibitions to support the Fak Kurba initiative and to introduce it, but the exhibitions were stopped at the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic, which lasted for about two years until the first half of 2022.”
Dr. Mohammed Al-Zadjali also confirmed that the feedback through the exhibitions is useless, and therefore we did not continue with that after the Covid-19 pandemic.
He also said that there are some companies that offer to attach their donations to propaganda as a kind of marketing and advertising for them, but these are refused to avoid exploiting the initiative to remove distress like this work, and we hope that donations by companies will be a matter of contributing to business and community, civil and humanitarian participation.
Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Zadjali concluded by saying, “Despite these challenges, we aim for this initiative to be sustainable, and we plan to work throughout the year, and we always strive in each edition to overcome some of the challenges that we faced in the past editions.”
