By Sarah Hegland, Programs Manager, Penny Appeal USA
As much as we wanted to do Qurbani in Gaza this year, we didn’t think we would be able to. We could do it in the West Bank easily, and we knew that fresh meat would benefit a lot of Palestinians there who are living under increasing restrictions and incursions. As for Gaza, our partners told us that there was a shortage of live animals available this year. They offered to procure frozen sheep from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, but with the ever-changing border situation they could not guarantee that the sheep would arrive on time.
Given all the uncertainties, we informed our partners in Gaza that we regretted that we couldn’t support Qurbani there this year, and went ahead with funding agreements with our partner in the West Bank and eight other countries. As it turned out, this wasn’t the end of the story for Qurbani in Gaza.
The Qurbani Process
Qurbani is an exciting process for all of us. It starts just one week after the end of Ramadan, when we reach out to over 40 partners in 20 different countries, asking them to provide their Qurbani share prices this year. We compile all of these prices into a spreadsheet and compare the offerings, taking into consideration the supply and demand from last year and where the need is greatest this year. We then finalize our list of countries, partners, and prices, and draw up funding agreements making commitments to each partner. We can increase our commitments later based on donors’ actual contributions to each country, which we continually monitor throughout the month of Dhul Hijjah, but making minimum commitments as early as possible helps our partners begin their own preparations for Qurbani.
With the funding agreements signed, our partners begin their work meeting with community leaders to identify the vulnerable families that will receive the meat, procuring the animals, contracting with the local slaughterhouse, and drawing up logistical plans for packaging and distributing the meat.
Each of our partners has extensive experience in the Qurbani process, and they keep us updated on any challenges that come up. We also meet with each of them to discuss the project and review the Qurbani rules that we require them to follow, including the Islamic technique for a Qurbani sacrifice and the documentation requirements for the process.
Qurbani in Gaza
One week before Eid al-Adha, we received an email from one of our partners in Gaza saying that they were now able to offer live sheep for Qurbani. The share price was high due to low supply and the timeline was short for our partner to make all the needed preparations, but we agreed that this was an amazing opportunity to provide fresh meat to people living under extremely difficult circumstances.
We quickly prepared the funding agreement, and our partners went ahead and procured the sheep.
The blessings of Dhul Hijjah are many. The blessing of being able to share our abundance with others. The blessing of gathering with our families and communities. The blessing of pilgrimage. The blessing of remembrance. And yet another blessing this year: your donations helped feed over 2,500 people in Gaza.
