Mozambique expects Ramadan to boost solidarity in face of crisis

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Mozambique expects Ramadan to boost solidarity in face of crisis

10:46 CAT | 29 May 2017

Lusa (File photo)

The Mozambican Muslim community is expecting Ramadan to generate “more solidarity” to help tackle the financial and economic crisis besetting the country.

“On a day-to-day basis, we can see that difficulties have increased and people are ending up here at our facilities,” community spokesman Yussuf Ravat told Lusa at the community centre on Eduardo Mondlane Avenue in central Maputo, at the start of Ramadan on Friday night.

Although unable to say exactly how many people were seeking help, he said there was more demand. “We’ve been working like firefighters,” he said.

The Muslim community humanitarian action group operates on several fronts.

“We work with students, the sick and disadvantaged people. We also have water fountains installed and we have a project with the municipality to help beggars,” he told Lusa.

The picture is clear. The number of people who need help has increased .”They have increased a lot because of the crisis. There are people who have lost their jobs” and others who face new needs, Ravat said.

Ravat is therefore appealing for a month of reflection and solidarity. Ramadan will give Muslims in Mozambique an “idea of what suffering is like”, and encourage them to help those in need, he hopes.

To respond to the increase in people seeking help, the organization has sought to “rationalize the donations it receives and channel them to those who need it most”.

“This being a month of reflection, we should be more focused on what our relationships with people are and also on what our connections with communities are,” he explained.

Mozambique is trying to recover from an economic crisis marked by a sharp increase in the cost of living caused by a reduction in exports and foreign investment, currency devaluation and suspension of support from international partners as a result of the ‘hidden debts’.

Natural disasters last year worsened the scenario, leaving more than one and a half million people facing food insecurity.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and the fourth of the five pillars of Islam. During Ramadan, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset.

After Christianity, Islam is the second-largest religion in Mozambique, especially in the north of the country where there was contact with Arab peoples from the sixth century on, well before the arrival of the Portuguese.

Source: Lusa