Sixty Four at Sumaiyah’s! | Community Packing Days

It’s not enough to ask you to take our word for it that awesome people are doing awesome things in Perth. That’s why we’re kicking off our Community Packing Day spotlight series with Sumaiyah & her crew – our biggest collection and gathering to date!

Sumaiyah found out about hosting a Community Packing Day through our June newsletter (plug, plug: sign up for our newsletter).

“We were sitting at a friend’s daughter’s wedding and thought up the idea then. We wanted to get together to do something good and sent an email [to HFB] right then and there.”

Sumaiyah along with her family and friends held a community Eid dinner where they raised a whopping $330 for the project!

She continued raising funds after that event through her networks, aiming to donate 30 boxes worth of food.

However, come their packing day, they had collected enough donations for 64 boxes! That’s over a thousand dollars worth of food!

Words can’t express how wonderful it was to hear from Sumaiyah and her team as well as attend their little backyard packing day.

Sumaiyah’s family has now pledged to donate 10 boxes per month for the project, bringing the initiative into their home on an ongoing basis.

HFB-Perth would like to send a massive thank you and shout out to Sumaiyah and her crew for all of their efforts and contribution!

YOU can also host your own packing day with your family and friends – get in touch with us today to find out how: hfbperth@gmail.com

 

Being Busy Bees & the Big 130 | MAR-APR Wrap Up

We are on the brink of June yet we still get together as a team and talk about how exhausted we are from March and April. The past couple of months have been a whirlwind of events, promo and new endeavours. To save you the trouble of having to read through it all, we spent a lot of time documenting the past couple of months in photographs and videos. Enjoy!

In the Pursuit of Impact

Do you want to be a part of something bigger than yourself? Do you want to leave a legacy behind? Do you want to better the world you live in?

Do you want to live a meaningful life?

HFB Perth Likes…Shawn Achor!

Hello, 2016!

Here at HFB – Perth we are big on goals, meeting our targets and exploiting all of the hipster cafes in Perth to figure out how to do so – because nothing says productivity like coffee, desserts and all day breakfasts. Our team has been gearing up for some hard work in 2016, so it was perfect stumbling upon The Happy Secret to Better Work by Shawn Achor.

Full of gems regarding positivity, happiness, success and work, I wanted to share a few of my own thoughts about these concepts and how they have related to my work with the Halal Food Bank – Perth.

That’s a Wrap! | 2015 in Review

2015 has been a phenomenal year for the Halal Food Bank – Perth team. We cannot even begin to express our gratitude and astonishment at the way the project and the team has grown in such a short amount of time. So I am here, your resident HFB – Perth blogger, to wrap this year up, take a look back at what we have achieved this year through countless blessings and where our sights are set for 2016.

#2 | HFB Perth Reads…

As of late, I’ve been getting more and more familiar with the concept of: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” I feel we need to re-evaluate what we think of when we discuss “charity” & “poverty”; what do those terms even mean to us and are the connotations more harmful than we think? What do we aim to achieve when we think of “giving charity”? Are we contributing time and effort into building sustainable projects in which those that are disadvantaged are actively contributing and developing their independence (see: Mia Birdsong) or are we simply donating our bit here and there (whether it be money, clothes or food) and then being done with it?

Now, that’s not to say that those contributions are ineffective or invalid in any way: there is a definite need for them, but they are often short-term endeavours. The ideal is that there no longer exists a need for projects such as these due to their replacement by sustainable initiatives that are long-term and supported, not only by people passionate about helping others, but by the people that are struggling themselves.

The Islamic tradition is explicit when it dictates that the disadvantaged in society have a right over us. It is a duty that we must fulfil, one of the obligations of our faith being that of Zakat (meaning purification: in which we must donate 2.5% of our wealth to those in need) – but we as a community need to think about how we go about purifying that wealth and contributing.

An article found on the Virtual Mosque by Louiza Chekhar discusses just this. Titled “Dignity, not Charity”, this insightful piece serves as a reminder that there should be more to aiding someone in need; giving somebody what they need in that moment is helpful, but supplying someone with the tools and ability to provide for themselves and their family in the long run gives them so much more. Chekhar delves into the concept of affording someone their rightful dignity and honour when they are struggling by exploring the ‘Prophetic model of charity’.

You can read the full article here.

Until next time,

Salaams from the Halal Food Bank – Perth Team 🙂

And the Winner Is… | POINT REP PLAYOFFS 2015

Sunday the 4th of October 2015 marked HFB-Perth’s first ever Point Rep Playoffs (PRPO) packing competition. Stemming from a rivalry between collection points Mirrabooka and Padbury (and point representatives Nicole and Nomaan, respectively), the showdown at Padbury’s Al Majid Mosque had been highly anticipated.

In the end, one team did emerge victorious but we’ll get to that later…or you can just scroll down and find out, but I live on the hopes that you are far more enticed by my rambling than just the result, right?

Right?

#1 | HFB Perth Reads…

Much misunderstanding and ignorance surrounds the issue of living in poverty; as this week is National Anti-Poverty Week, efforts are being made to break down barriers and encourage conversation to educate and break the stigma. In an article by Orlander Ruming, the issue of the cost of living and, by extension, the cost of housing are discussed as major contributing factors when it comes to struggling families in regional areas.

“Without access to housing people find it almost impossible to get and keep a job, to send their kids to school or to address any other ongoing issues in their lives. It’s a key foundation for addressing disadvantage,” NCOSS chief executive officer Tracy Howe said.

You can read the complete article here.

Until next time,

Salaams from the Halal Food Bank – Perth Team 🙂

HFB Perth Likes…Mia Birdsong!

“The Story We Tell About Poverty Isn’t True” by Mia Birdsong is on our radar this month, bringing much-needed insight to the people that struggle on an everyday basis. Their lives, efforts and ventures that shatter preconceived notions of living in poverty, hard work, success and privilege.

Until next time,

Salaams from the Halal Food Bank – Perth Team 🙂

Nafisa & Sabrah Attend the Wellbeing Expo (Sep 2015)

It was the Wellbeing Expo that brought Nafisa and I along to Wilson Hall on a Tuesday morning in September. We arrived eager to meet, greet and enlighten the attendees about the work that goes on at Halal Food Bank. The expo was hosted by Richmond Wellbeing. It showcased services offered by ASSETS, Reach Out, the Muslim Women’s Support Centre and the Richmond Fellowship themselves to individuals and families requiring assistance to maintain their physical and mental health. We were lucky enough to have a stall right next to these agencies.

As Halal Food Bank’s role is to provide food to families and individuals who are unable to access safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food, we felt that our presence was quite fitting for the event.

In our short time at the expo we learned about the tireless work of staff in service agencies. In a highly summarised view, here’s what they do:

• Richmond Wellbeing is a leading organisation that supports those who have a diagnosable mental illness.
• MWSC WA (Inc) is a specialised agency within the Muslim community that works to promote better health, self-esteem, personal and spiritual growth in addition to the general well-being of Muslim women and their families.
• ASeTTS provides services to those who have experienced difficulties in the process of migrating to Australia from places of turmoil.
• Headspace is the National Youth Mental Health Foundation that provides early intervention through mental health services to 12-25 year olds.

Incredibly, we also received enough donations to fill our whole box. It was definitely worth taking some time out from our uni schedules to get out into the community and find out what other services agencies do.

The guys at the Fellowship really did an amazing job with the expo. They organised an animal farm for the kids (though Nafisa and I really loved this part!), delicious fruit kebabs, hand massages (omg!) and henna stalls. We also received a goody bag each that had loads of information about the representing organisations. I also really appreciated that the content of the expo catered to diverse ages and backgrounds.

A huge thanks to the staff at Richmond Wellbeing and the Muslim Women’s Support Centre for organising such a beneficial community-orientated event and for allowing us to participate. Keep checking in with the team to see where we’re off to next!

Bye for now,

Sabrah and Nafisa
(Curtin Reps, HFB Perth)