Fasting Shakoor forms his own ‘Food for Tomorrow’
By AZARD ALI Monday, June 27 2016
GIVING has always brought out the best in people.
For Sideeq Shakoor, who is a muslim, the holy month of Ramaadan is that time of the year that reminds him of the most fun days growing up as a child.
Upon the sighting of the new moon for the start of the month of Ramaadan according to the Islamic calender, Shakoor, 19, recalls the early-morning alarm at dawn, for 29 or 30 consecutive days, to begin the fast. But there is more to not eating and drinking from dawn to sunset that is etched in Shakoor’s memory of his childhood Ramaadan days in South Trinidad when he was just nine years old.
His mother and father would buy groceries, bundle them into packages, and distribute to needy families in the villages of Penal. It was all in a day’s work for Shakoor and his siblings who, in addition to praying the five daily prayers and reading the Qu’ran in Arabic each day of the month, must find time during the day or night, to deliver those hampers.
With each passing Ramaadan, Shakoor told Newsday that his life as a youth, has been one in which his parents instilled Islamic principles.
He recall his parents taking him in their van in the days of Ramaadan beyond the villages of Penal. His father had heard from a member of the mosque which the family attends, that a woman with three children living in Moruga, needed a stove.
“I remember that I was just a young boy and helping my dad lift the stove and carry a mattress. We went to other places where people needed a bed, or clothes. It was nice, but I was just a boy and my other brother, even younger.†Shakoor has grown into a young man of 20 years and, upon his entry into Naparima College, he joined the Naparima College Sea Scouts. Last year, he visited Ecuador as a representative of an Inter- American Leadership Training programme designed to train scout leaders of countries in the Inter-American scout regions. Shakoor had the opportunity to work with 60 scouts from Chile, Mexico, Guyana, Brazil, Suriname, Colombia, Ecuador, Grenada, Belize, Jamaica, Curacao, Aruba, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Uruguay, Bolivia, Argentina, Honduras, Bahamas, Panama, El Salvador, Nicaragua, USA, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Venezuela, Peru, Costa Rica and Paraguay.
It involved workshops and conferences aimed at developing ways to spread peace and helping the needy.
Upon his return home, Shakoor established his own charitable oneman organisation titled: “Food For Tomorrow.†The name was borne out of their charitable work in Ecuador. The leaders of each scout group returned to their respective countries and have each formed a “Food For Tomorrow†group.
Shakoor seeks no assistance from anyone.
He gathers foodstuff, packages them, and delivers himself. “I don’t feel compelled to impose what is my duty, on others.†In the next couple of Ramaadan days left, Shakoor would be busy packaging special hampers to ensure the needy have a feast, just as he would have his on the feast of Eid-ul-Fitr, to be celebrated most likely on July 6.
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