MÜSİAD Board of Directors Member and Local High Board Chairman Ahmet Şekerli said, "Last year we distributed 98 thousand food parcels; this year our target is to exceed 100 thousand. MÜSİAD is a community formed not only of people skilled in trade but of people of heart"


Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association (MÜSİAD) Board of Directors Member and Local High Board Chairman Ahmet Şekerli, stating that they are rapidly continuing food aid on the occasion of the month of Ramadan, used the following words: 'Last year we distributed 98 thousand food parcels; this year our target is to exceed 100 thousand. MÜSİAD is a community formed not only of people skilled in trade but of people of heart.'

Şekerli gave information about the aid work MÜSİAD has carried out for those in need throughout the month of Ramadan.

Conveying that they continue until the religious holiday the aid preparations they began before Ramadan, Şekerli said: 'MÜSİAD has a broad organizational network at home and abroad. All our members wishing to give support delivered their aid before Ramadan. We made our preparations and carried out our work in every province of Türkiye. As of today our food distribution has exceeded 70 thousand. We distribute these mainly through our own organization.'

Saying that they will increase their work as the holiday approaches, Şekerli made the following assessment: 'We hope this number of 70 thousand will rise close to the holiday. Last year we distributed 98 thousand food parcels; this year our target is to exceed 100 thousand. We trust our organization; they are sensitive people who will reach those in need, because MÜSİAD is a community formed not only of people skilled in trade but of people of heart.'


'Credit ledgers are being purchased to help those in need'


Noting that they have also considered the sector employees experiencing difficulty with the full lockdown, Şekerli spoke as follows:

'We primarily strove to make distributions through our friends working in closed workplaces in the service and retail sectors. We carry out these distributions together with our Young MÜSİAD brothers and the Vefa Social Support Group affiliated with the governorships. As of the 21st day of Ramadan we have food convoys setting out for our 13 provinces in the east. Our organization is carrying out its work in our provinces with lower income levels. Before Ramadan we had sent flour to Azaz in Syria; God willing, on the Night of Power we will again have a food distribution in Azaz, where we have a MÜSİAD branch, before the holiday.'

Recalling that there are people in need in many parts of İstanbul, Şekerli stated: 'We reached them through our organizational network; another tradition we leave to the last 10 days is the purchase of credit (zimem) ledgers. This was a tradition of ours that had almost been forgotten. MÜSİAD brought it to the fore in past years and set an example across our country. Afterwards many organizations began to do this as well.'

Reporting that many people have been reached through the aid, Şekerli said: 'The important side of this tradition is that the debtor does not know who paid the debt. And the one who pays does not know whose debt he paid. This is a very beautiful feeling. In this regard we have an exhibition at MÜSİAD that we created with the credit ledgers purchased. Indeed one of them was bought from Jerusalem.'


'Abroad, aid is delivered through local purchasing'


Noting that they organize iftar programs for those in need abroad, Şekerli said: 'Because of the outbreak there are lockdowns in some countries as well. For this reason, in places where we could not hold an iftar program, we were able to carry out local purchasing. Since we had planned the whole program on the basis of giving iftar there, we did not send food from here; but where there was a lockdown, we immediately carried out our food distribution in the region through local purchasing.'

Şekerli further expressed that apart from these MÜSİAD has stakeholder organizations abroad, and that they reach all four corners of the world together with many foundations, associations or state institutions.