Ayesha Shoukat spent four hours Saturday packing 30 boxes full of canned goods, toilet paper and diapers for families in need. For her, this was just another weekend.
“I love doing work for the community,” Shoukat said. “It gives me inner peace, because I am a religious person. I always thank the God Allah. I am young, (so) I can use my energy to help other people.”
Shoukat is a volunteer coordinator of Austin’s chapter of the Muslim Youth of North America, an international youth group for Muslim teenagers ages 12 to 18. The organization created two initiatives to help those in need during the coronavirus pandemic: March’s Project Sew Much to Do, in which the youth made 2,500 fabric masks for health care and essential workers, and April’s Operation Outreach, during which the group gathers at a distribution center, such as the North Austin Muslim Community Center, to collect and deliver donations.
About 11 teens in the group centralized donations on Saturday at the Al-Noor Muslim Community Center of Manor, where youth and other community donors brought non-perishables for Shoukat and Hasna Yusuf to sort into boxes for families around the Austin area.
These projects are occurring during the sacred month of Ramadan, which requires Muslims who are able to fast from sunrise to sunset and to increase charity work. Muslims believe charitable acts during Ramadan are amplified in the eyes of God. The month calls on Muslims to give money and time to the less fortunate. The world’s 1.8 billion Muslims began observing Ramadan on Friday.
Donor Laney Sturdivant, who brought several bags of groceries, began working with the group this month, but has regularly organized large donations with her Steiner Ranch neighborhood for years.
She said she moved to Austin six years ago with her husband and children, but soon got a divorce and was left with no family in the area.
“I could’ve very easily become homeless,” Sturdivant said. “It just made it really real for me. People go through things and become very vulnerable. Everybody could use a helping hand.”
Some of the donations Saturday were taken to an apartment complex in Pflugerville. Resident Fari Daru said she has two young kids and a husband who lost his job two months ago.
“We have other bills, so this is a very big help for us that they’re sending us food and especially diapers,” Daru said. “This is stressful for the parents, because the kids don’t understand what’s going on outside.”
Muslim Youth of North America chapter adviser Zafar Choudhury said “these volunteers know that with every step that they take towards that effort, they’re going to please their creator, then they’re going to get the reward for that.
“You’ll see more of an effort during this month, especially during a pandemic, of Muslims doing more for their fellow human beings,” he said.
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