Fridges stocked with free food for those in need have become a city-wide phenomenon in Dubai, serving thousands of people every day of the holy month of Ramadan.
The Australian activist Sumayyah Sayed launched the nonprofit Ramadan Sharing Fridge initiative last year, stocking a single unit outside her house with food and drinks for the city’s poor.
From there it spread via social media to take in more than 170 fridges, each visited by hundreds of people every day.
This year the scheme has been backed by the Emirates Red Crescent, in association with the nongovernment organisation Open Arms UAE, to “bring together different members of the community to share a moment”.
“It’s about demonstrating that a small act of kindness can have a positive effect on other people’s life both during and beyond the holy month of Ramadan,” wrote organisers on Facebook.
Reuters reported that about 25,000 people had given to the scheme this year, boosting the number of fridges involved to more than 150. Organisers said at least 100 people visited each one every day.
Fridges maintained by volunteers are stocked with packs of drinks, water, laban (fermented milk), fruit, vegetables and dry foods, from goods donated daily by 10 to 15 sponsors as well as members of the public.
Organisers said each fridge was filled up to 15 or 20 times a day. Though the scheme was devised to benefit Muslim workers fasting from dawn to dusk during Ramadan, anyone can accept a snack.
The fridges are dotted around the city in car parks, on construction sites and outside private residences, and marked on a digital map, which had been viewed nearly 412,000 times at time of writing.
Fridges that need to be restocked are flagged on a smartphone app, Community Fridge, while people wanting to get involved, either by hosting a fridge or donating goods, are corralled in a Facebook group of nearly 24,000 members.
“It is a real commitment to keep the fridges filled and it takes a lot of daily donations across Dubai,” Anne Mulcahy, the communications manager for the initiative, told Arab News.
Ramadan – the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, during which observant Muslims refrain from consuming food and liquids from dawn to dusk – concludes this year on Saturday evening.
“The satisfaction that we get out of serving these people who work in the heat all day – they come to the fridge and walk away with a cold drink and you know it has made them happy,” Sayed told the National on 27 May, after the holy month began. “That is probably the highlight of their day and that is enough for us to keep going.
“The initiative also builds on the sense of community because every time someone makes a drop to the fridge, we end up chatting with them.”
