DEARBORN — While breaking fast at the Hanini Outreach and Community Center Monday night, one woman introduced herself to a stranger sitting at the same table. “I’m from Iraq, where are you from?” she asked. 

Conversations such as these take place every night at the center, where the charitable group Life for Relief and Development is partnering with Sharjah Charity International to provide free Iftar dinners throughout   Ramadan to help the needy during the holy month. 

The center is more than a place where the needy turn for Iftar dinner. Friendships are being made and a strong sense of community can be felt there. 

“I came from Syria only one year ago,” said a 17-year-old Syrian refugee who often comes to the center with her mother and sister. “We don’t really know a lot of people here, but when we come here every night we feel like we have family and friends and a community we belong to. This is really helping my mom too. She can’t afford to make us Ramadan dinners like this everyday.”

Life for Relief and Development Orphan Coordinator Ali Al-Zaqzuq said the Hanini Outreach and Community Center donated the facility to Life for Relief and Development for the entire holy month and that it’s being used at no expense. The center plans on hosting an upcoming food drive for the poor after Ramadan.  

“This is open every night to people who might be lonely and don’t have family to eat with,” said Maha Mustafa, a volunteer with the Hanini center. “It is also open to our new brothers and sisters in Islam who may be the only people in their families observing Ramadan because no one else is Muslim. We have had people come in for these reasons as well.” 

Life for Relief and Development also drops off Iftar dinner every night to a nearby apartment complex with low-income residents. The leftovers from the center are distributed to mosques throughout metro Detroit, including St. Clair Shores, Rochester Hills, Warren and Detroit, for needy people to enjoy. 

Volunteers are also delivering dinner to those who can’t leave their homes because of certain health conditions. On an average night, between the center, the apartment complex and mosques, more than 200 people are being fed. 

Those who organized the monthly dinner turned to other charitable organizations in the community, such as Zaman International and Muslim Family Services, to help get the word out to needy people they serve.  

One Arab woman, who didn’t want to be identified, and has the disease polio, called the monthly program “a blessing.”  

Polio is a crippling and potentially deadly infectious disease caused by a virus that spreads from person to person, invading the brain and spinal cord and causing the paralysis. 

“When I found out about this through Zaman International I was so relieved,” the woman said. “This is really helpful, because I walk in crutches and I can’t go to the store and buy me all the stuff to make and cook every night. It is too hard for me. This is also saving me a lot of money, I can’t afford to have an Iftar dinner like this every night.” 

Life for Relief and Development volunteers, most of whom are also fasting, serve the dinners every night after a long hard day of work or being in school and  don’t break their fast until everyone else is done being served. 

“Everyone who works here does it for free and they refuse to take any money, even for gas. Everybody who is working here is a volunteer,” Al-Zaqzuq said.

Volunteers say similar efforts are being planned for next year and are needed because of the large influx of refugees in southeast Michigan that have settled in the region over the last few years. Mustafa said this year organizers’ main focus was to help needy refugees during Ramadan. 

 “In recent years our community has seen an influx of refugees coming in to our communities with all of the violence and everything going on overseas and in their countries,” Mustafa said. “Zaman International has seen an influx in the number of families who have come, so during the month of Ramadan we didn’t want anyone to go without Iftar. We know a lot of families. If they don’t get help and support from the community, they’ll go without and we didn’t want anyone to go without.” 

The nightly dinners at the center are sponsored by different charitable organizations, groups and individuals in the community, including working professionals. Life for Relief and Development pays for the dinner when there are no sponsors. 

The first few Iftar dinners were sponsored by a charity based in the United Arab Emirates.

“We have had doctors and pharmacists in the community who have stepped up and sponsored Iftar night,” Mustafa said. “To sponsor a dinner, all you have to do is give a donation to Life for Relief and Development.” 

The program’s benefits are not restricted to just the Muslim community. The center’s doors are open to all those who are needy. 

“We are all brothers and sisters. This is for everybody,” Mustafa said. 

Al-Zaqzuq thanked the restaurants helping prepare the food for the needy and said they have all been generous. 

 “A lot of people, everybody here can eat, but they cannot afford a decent meal, and thank God there was enough generous people this year,” Al-Zaqzuq said. “They heard the idea and promised that from day one to the last day of Ramadan all the Iftar dinners would be covered. There are even people giving us more to buy extra things. The restaurants we bring the food from, they are very generous. If we order food for 200, we know we are receiving food for more than 200.” 

Mustafa said the charity plans on making it an annual event, and that after Ramadan meetings will be held to discuss how to help feed the needy more often. 

“We’ve had comments where people say ‘everyday I eat by myself during Ramadan and you have provided me with a place where I can come and eat and be surrounded by people and be part of a community,’ so we have had a lot of positive feedback,” she said. 

Ramadan ends July 28. To sponsor a dinner at the Hanini center, call Life for Relief and Development at 248.424.7493 or visit lifeusa.org.