Free Syria Weekend

This past weekend was absolutely amazing, very intense and a result of hundreds of hours of work, but so worth it. All the best and many thanks go to so many of our volunteers, most of whom I won't be mentioning by name. At least I can safely thank Omar Offendum, Amal of Brave New Voices and Dylan Connor, but there were obviously many, many others to thank as well including Zakat Foundation who did an amazing and effortless job with the Sunday fundraiser.

Saturday was our college awareness concert at Wellesley College. Al-Muslimat had put together a wonderful program there that included Offendum, Amal, a Saudi lute player and a very inspiring presentation by Shafi Khan of Muslims Without Borders. We had a bake sale and Syria souvenir table going as well as sale of Offendum's CDs and the income of tickets and raised a decent amount of chunk that was going directly to Muslims Without Borders' efforts in Syria. The event gave enough time for people to hang out and brainstorm and chat after and was a lovely evening overall. That same night UMass Amherst also dedicated their annual Eid dinner to the cause for freedom in Syria and support of the humanitarian efforts there and had the great artist Dylan Connor perform his songs about Syria along with many other presentations. Huda, my daughter,  and her friends set up a Syria table and sold souvenirs for humanitarian aid that brought in over $1,200. I was truly impressed and very encouraged with the interest and support. This amount was separate from other money collected that night and was just an added pat on the back for those of use sending money to sources needing urgent medical care for newly arrived refugees.

Sunday was the formal fundraiser to support the work of Zakat Foundation in Syria and was held in Lowell, MA. I was truly impressed with the venue which was at a former Holiday Inn hotel, had great service and polite staff and very decent pricing and a lovely banquet hall. The food was decent, but not amazing, but that's ok because the sentiment behind the fundraiser was not to cater to people's palates, but to encourage continued support and some monetary giving as well. Evening had a few hiccups as are expected, but overall was a lovely occasion to assemble around a united cause for freedom and prosperity in Syria. Any event is only as good as its guests and we had the best guests and the best sentiment ever.

Sunday the fundraiser began slightly delayed but considering we had to pray maghrib anyways, then it all worked out fine. Everyone was polite and patient and nobody seemed to be annoyed with the delay. The delay was caused by the star performers arriving a bit delayed due to traffic and the brother set to welcome being stuck in traffic as well. We began praying maghrib and were right back on track after salat. The venue had been slightly delayed also in setting up the service and table numbers, something I will have to keep in mind next time and ask them to have everything ready 2 hours before the event and not at the actual time of the start of the event!!

All in all, great evening. Everyone enjoyed the drummer boy for freedom and liberty, had a decent dinner while we saw an informative video on Syria,  listened to our local Sarah present her fascinating poem on Syria,  experienced Amal, were enchanted by Offendum,  mesmerized to the speak of  Hiam,a Syrian American Christian, speak about why we should still support the cause (because people want freedom and simply need our support as they have daily sacrifices). We met a torture victim who had just escaped Syria and then we watched a very touching raw video of a wounded boy from a refugee camp, making istighfar, saying shahadah and letting us all know how his family was attacked with bombs in the night, leaving him an orphan. It was obviously very moving.