One day when Zakat Foundation of America Executive Director Khalil Demir was a young boy, he asked his mother what she was making for dinner. Standing up on his toes, he peeked over the edge of the soup pot she was stirring. At the bottom of the large pot full of water, he saw one small piece of meat.
“How can that little piece of meat feed all of us?” He asked.
His mother shooed him away. “Don’t worry about that,” she said. “Let me worry about feeding you. You go watch your brothers and sisters.”
This was the extent of their poverty.
But when a more prosperous family put a goat into the care of Mr. Demir’s mother, their lives changed forever.
The goat gave us milk, yogurt, butter and buttermilk to eat and drink,” Mr. Demir said. “But every other day, my mother took what the goat gave, and she sold it in the market. That is how she paid for us to go to school!”
Now Mr. Demir and his six brothers and sisters are all educated professionals with families. They have come a long, long way from those meals of a small piece of meat in a large pot of water.
How did they escape poverty? How did they become able to raise their families, educate their children and serve their communities?
They did it through the help of God, the generosity of a more prosperous family, the loving dedication of their mother, and the milk given by that humble goat.
Would you like to make that kind of a difference in the fortunes of a family? You can.
By giving this Ramadan, you can help a family escape poverty and gain self-sufficiency and education. Your generosity can change the lives of many generations to come.
