The project initiated by the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (Al Raed) in southern Crimea to build plastic agricultural hot-houses is 70% complete. Dr. Mohamed Taha the head of the project stated that it constituted a da’wah plan, since it would present the opportunity of communicating with the recipients of this service, and teaching them about Islam and establishing good relations with them.
Al Raed initiated at the beginning of this year a project to rehabilitate the farms of the poor people of the Crimea, a number amounting to almost 400 thousand, by distributing 150 hot-houses, this was done in collaboration with many charity organizations, such as the Kuwait Zakat House.
In an exclusive statement to Islam Online, Dr.Taha who heads the project as well as Al Raed said that a study was done on the climate and the land of the area, as well as defining the Tatar people in need of the hot-houses, and finding markets in the region for vegetable and fruit produce. He also stated that they had organized many special training programs for the farmers, to teach them how to use and benefit from the hot-houses, as well as supplying them with materials they would need to start work, such as fertilizers, seeds and others. This is in addition to constant communication with these families; giving them information on Islam and increasing their attachment to their religion.
Dr. Ismail Alkady the President of Al Raed stated that the objectives of the project were to achieve self sufficiency for the Muslims of the region, to improve their standard of living by locating markets for their products in the region, and solving the problem of poverty and unemployment which 60% of them suffer from. He went on to say that he believed the project would be very successful, since the hot-houses protected the harvest from weather changes, and he expected that the produce would be highly competitive in the market which largely depends on highly priced imported products.
The project has started to show signs of success being nearly 70% completed, 100 hot-houses have been distributed to 100 Tatar families in the region, which met with great approval.
Mr. Abbass Gafarov a Tatar in his fifties, has a family of seven, and is one of the recipients of the hot-houses, told Islam Online that he thanked God Almighty and all those who helped in the project, he had been forced before to leave his land in his village, and find odd jobs to sustain his family, bad weather and high prices of land forced him out, but now he has great hopes to going back to being a farmer, since so many of his problems have been solved. He said that he was thinking of planting cucumbers and tomatoes and strawberries and radishes, as he used to in the past.
It is worthy of note that Al Raed has initiated such projects before, such as digging wells for farming in the area, as well as giving a cow to each poor family of the Tatar to ensure that they had a supply of meat and dairy products for their families.
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