Bay Area Muslims Ramp Up Charity Drives, Fundraisers During Ramadan

At a recent Sunday iftar in San Francisco, Sarah Aamir was thrilled to announce that someone donated a whopping $5,000 to the charity of the evening.

“Thank you for thinking of the people of Sudan. One dollar is a lot in Sudan. 5K?” she said, addressing a crowd of 200 in a wide office space in the city’s Mission District.

The funds would help Sadagaat USA, a humanitarian organization that supports community kitchens in Sudan — a nation dealing with a years-long civil war and what the United Nations has called the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, setting off widespread displacement, hunger and violence.

In the Bay Area, the crowd applauded, giddy after breaking their Ramadan fast together over plates of chicken shawarma, gima, a savory minced meat dish, salad and rice. While the holy month is known for late-night meals and gatherings, another major component of this period is charity.

“I think a lot about people back home,” Aamir said. “I have this food, and they don’t, and it’s very easy to feel guilty.”

But it has helped her, this Ramadan, to “get some people moving, get some people interested in learning about Sudan.” The March 1 iftar ultimately raised over $140,000.

This year, Muslims and community members across the Bay Area have attended iftar dinners for a range of causes, from money for Gazans to clean water access in Pakistan.

Haneen Sidahmed, one of the presenters at the San Francisco “An Iftar In Sudan,” said the act of fasting can help foster community among Muslims and reflect more globally.

“It’s almost like an equalizer,” Sidahmed said. “The ethos of Ramadan is usually, ‘How do we give back generosity,’ especially with folks who are affected by all kinds of calamities and crises. That’s really where the fundraising spirit comes through and why the Ramadan fundraisers are so powerful.”

Ilham Abuanga, who was born in Sudan and now lives in Antioch, said she attended the San Francisco iftar to show support for her people. It’s been difficult to be away from her relatives during the ongoing war — a thought that she said keeps her up at night.

“Sometimes, it feels like you are lost. Sometimes, it feels you’re disconnected,” said Abuanga, whose family runs a charity for pregnant women in Sudan, in honor of her late sister. “The only thing we can do is pray and give dua and aid them financially. But it’s very sad, and it’s heartbreaking.”

Iftar dinners have also been a way for people of various faiths to break bread with each other and, as a result, get to know one another.

In Palo Alto, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church recently hosted an interfaith iftar with the American Muslim Voice Foundation, an advocacy organization that has regularly hosted the event after Sept. 11, 2001, and the rise of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. The event drew 180 people, according to the organizers.

“I always encourage people … please sit with somebody you don’t know. That’s the whole idea, we are providing these experiences,” said Samina Sundas, one of the organizers, who has been hosting interfaith iftar dinners in her home since 2003. “Our mission is replacing a culture of fear, despair and division with a culture of hope, inclusion and peace.”

The Sunday iftar to gather people of all different backgrounds felt especially meaningful, since it was also the weekend the U.S. ordered strikes on Iran, leading to subsequent violence in the region, said Rev. Nancy Ross, the associate rector of St. Mark’s.

“There were so many people who were so happy to be together,” Ross said.

For the San Francisco Bay Area branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Ramadan is an opportunity to educate people about their rights, particularly during a time of increased immigration enforcement by the Trump administration, Executive Director Zahra Billoo said.

Earlier this year, according to the advocacy group, it helped release a client who was taken into ICE detention and had a pending immigration court date.

Billoo said CAIR has seen an increase in requests for immigration-related support.

In the lead-up to Ramadan, she added, anxious questions began to arise from the Muslim community, including, “Is it safe to come to the mosque? What can individuals do to remain safe, and what can mosques do to protect themselves?”

In response, during the holy month, Billoo and CAIR representatives have visited over 50 different mosques across the Bay Area during iftar and night prayers, about the services the group offers and how they can get help if they are “confronted with the civil rights violation or immigration enforcement.”

“The vicious way in which this administration has been attacking minority communities does contribute to the need to deepen our relationships and bonds across communities,” Billoo said. “In Ramadan, Muslims increase their worship, and so we increase our outreach to protect them as they do so and reach them as they congregate.”