By Fauzia Wangare
As you prepare to break your fast this evening during this holy month of Ramadhan, does it ever cross your mind and may be ask yourself how fellow less fortunate Muslim brothers and sisters are faring?
Well, meet Mama Amina Ibrahim, 35, a mother of five children who resides in Kibera slums. Together with her husband, they make a family of seven and all live in a single room.
With soaring food prices, even the basic food items such as milk, sugar or oranges no longer exist on this family’s menu. In short, they survive each day of this Ramadhan as it comes.
“Chakula cha iftar inabidi tujibane, ili tupate angalau kitu wakati wakufunga,” (The little food for Iftar is shared sparingly among us because what remains will be our meal for suhur/daku) says Amina. On bad days, the children are used to taking water to break their fast and sleep but on better days, they have a simple meal of rice and potato stew.
On a shoestring budget of not more than Ksh400, Amina takes me through her household budget that probably lasts two days. “I buy two and half kilos of maize meal, half a kilo of sugar, cooking oil, a bunch of sukuma wiki (vegetables), tomatoes, onion and water for cooking. If lucky to have spare change, we can afford some meat.” However, since Ramadhan began, Amina tells me they have tasted meat once.
With her husband, Mohamud Ibrahim being unemployed, Amina is the one who shoulders the responsibility of placing a meal on the table through her bhajia cooking business.
Of the five children, Amina is assisted by Khadijha who is the only girl, while the boys spend their time at the nearby Makina Jamia mosque in Kibera.
Amina appeals to fellow Muslims to be considerate to the less fortunate. “There are Muslims during Ramadhan have nothing and are surviving through the grace of Allah. So when I hear about Israf (wastage) it pains me. What you could be throwing away/wasting could go a long way in assisting another Muslim elsewhere.”
When asked about her plans for Idd festivities once Ramadhan is over, Amina says, “It will just be a normal day for my family. I will prepare ugali and vegetables and thank Allah for it.”
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