Muslim women-led organization brightens Eid with toys for needy kids
Tables laden with footballs, roller skates, Nerf guns, crafts supplies and more beckoned teens, young children and toddlers with their parents choosing a few toys to celebrate the end of Ramadan.
“Can I get a ball?” one boy asked a volunteer wearing a hijab.
Muslims all over the world celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, with prayer, special foods, and the giving of charity and gifts to children.
In Columbus, Our Helpers, a Muslim women-led nonprofit group, organized a toy drive and giveaway at the Linden Community Center to celebrate this year. At the event, volunteers distributed more than 800 toys to 150 families.
“With Columbus having a thriving immigrant-refugee community, with growing Afghan, Palestinian (and other) communities that are reeling due to global conflicts, we really wanted to just bring joy into hundreds of households this year,” said the event’s organizer, Anisa Liban, a Somali American who is Our Helpers’ board secretary.
“The kids seemed overwhelmed with excitement, really. It reminds me of when I was a child and it was Eid,” said Hannan Ahmed, a volunteer who is Yemeni British and lives in Dublin, Ohio.
Founded in 2014, Our Helpers provides services related to employment, housing, and language interpretation, CEO Dorothy Hassan said.
Hassan, who converted to Islam in college and spent years living in the Middle East studying Arabic, said that gifts for children are a big part of Eid al-Fitr.
“Our toy event is always in the background, in the shadow of the Christmas toy events that happen around the city. But we are happy that we're changing that narrative,” she said.
Our Helpers organized a Ramadan toy giveaway last year with extra Christmas toys donated by Motherful, another nonprofit organization, she said. This year, they held their own drive with donations and volunteers from area mosques, Muslim schools and partners from other faiths.
Volunteer Marti Wukelic, a member of the Whitehall Bexley Rotary Club who lives in Berwick, described herself as “spiritual but not religious.”
Growing up in Ohio and living much of her adult life in Hawaii, she hadn’t interacted with Muslims much until she volunteered with Our Helpers, she said.
“It’s not about the faith so much, but how we're pretty much the same — good people are good people. People are imperfect, and they all try their best,” she said, describing the volunteer experience.
Other volunteers came from Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Sunrise Academy (a Muslim school in Hilliard), Abubakar Assidiq Islamic Center (a mosque in Columbus' Hilltop neighborhood), Almadina Academy (an Islamic school in Columbus) and elsewhere, according to Liban and Hassan.
Hassan said the toy drive is a way to bring a little bit of joy and laughter into the lives of families who are often struggling financially.
“When people have to make a decision between celebrating a holiday that celebrates community and paying the bills, then we were signing up for problems. This is our version of community — just sharing. And we have we've just had such an outpouring of love,” she said.
Peter Gill covers immigration and new American communities for The Dispatch in partnership with Report for America. You can support work like his with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America here:bit.ly/3fNsGaZ.
pgill@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Our Helpers, Muslim women-led organization, organizes Eid toy giveaway
