It was an exceptional evening. We had over 30 volunteers from around the world. They were all so enthusiastic. It was wonderful. It is amazing to see such awareness of the homeless problem. TSFI was very proud. All this shows our interconnectedness regardless of race, colour, nationality or creed in the pursuit of promoting love, care, and unity. Being United gives us strength and life is easier.
Thanks to brother Lee for collecting the hot food from Kajjal, a member of the Kinara group. Brother Lee also collected everything from the office. He’s a wonderful asset to the organization. Later brother Shamim came with his very popular lamb curry and other items.
It was wonderful to see the volunteers from Dublin Institute of Technology Islamic Society who join us every year as well as students from other colleges. They all worked very hard. It really was amazing just to see so many young people giving of themselves
As soon as everything was set up queues started to form. It was busy from the start. The weather was quite wet and people were glad of a meal We served over 200 people.
Sis Syrlyn helped bro Lee for preparation and helped him to load t the van.
Unfortunately brother Salamat couldn’t come tonight. Brother Usama, who worked with great enthusiasm, and brother Numan worked behind the counter and instructed the new volunteers. All volunteers got a chance to serve. Brothers Shamim, Asghar, and Arshad we’re busy monitoring. Sister Seham was busy managing the female volunteers. The sisters were very active serving tea and coffee. I spoke to the sisters and they all said it was wonderful to be there. The young brothers were kept busy packing the bread and pastries.
As usual we had the wonderful chicken Biryani and the lamb curry. Tonight they proved as popular as ever. Thanks to Tesco, Malahide there were 15 baskets of bread and treats. A friend of brother Lee donated some jackets There were also sleeping bag and a bag of clothes donated by sister Lovely. At the end of the night the Muslim sisters gave us some white rice, which quite surprisingly, went very quickly. One passer by left us two baskets of sundries containing soup and other items. Just as I was leaving I spoke to a lovely Spanish couple and they said they really liked what we do. They also donated milk which came in very handy for tea and coffee.
I also spoke to some regular customers who talked about their lives. Listening to their stories
reminds me of the fact that homelessness is a threat to everyone.
All was finished by 9.30 and everything packed up
Thanks to all our volunteers for their hard work and devotion A big thank you to all our college volunteers.