Refugees in Calais and families across Bradford were able to share in a Qurbani feast last weekend as a local charity ensured meat was there for all on both sides of the Channel.
The InTouch Foundation, which predominantly works across West Yorkshire via their mobile soup kitchen, worked around the clock to cook up meals and hand out packages of Qurbani meat.
Splitting into two groups of volunteers, one team distributed Qurbani to families in need at Islam Bradford, these families included both refugees and local residents that are struggling to put food on the table whilst the other visited the Jungle refugee camp in Calais to dish up thousands of hot meals.
Osman Gondal, CEO of the InTouch Foundation, explained why the charity had taken the decision to help ‘at home and overseas’ during the latest Eid celebrations.
“Following the success of the Qurbani distribution in Bradford over the past few years, we knew we wanted to do a similar project again this year but also wanted to see how we could help those most in need in the French refugee camps,” he said.
“We took the decision to run the Qurbani project at Islam Bradford once again to help local people, whilst a second group of volunteers travelled to Calais with a truck load of food.”
In total, 680 separate allocations of Qurbani (approximately 800kg’s) were handed out in Bradford with larger quantities for families and smaller for individuals.
Over 20 nationalities of people were served on the day locally this included people of many different faiths.
Meanwhile, over the Channel, thousands of refugees were also served up a feast as part of the InTouch Eid aid mission.
Ambassadors, Adil Anwar and Ahmad Hussain were amongst the travelling team alongside Osman and 13 other volunteers.
“We truly have an amazing team and are very fortunate to be able to carry out the work we do with the support of so many selfless individuals,” Osman explained.
“The team drove down to Calais in the InTouch van with it almost loaded to the brim with frozen food (Mince Curry and Khubz) that had been cooked by Sunrise Catering at no cost, meaning it just needed heating up when we got there. We also handed out Indian sweets that had been donated by KCB, and over 150 sleeping bags, The response was amazing.”
He added: “A big thank you to everyone who made this possible especially Jamalulail Ismail and Sofinee Harun for their continued hard work in the ‘kitchen in calais’.”
