Forming community groups and helping fellow members is an old tradition. This practice finds its truer spirit in Qatar where expatriates from different parts of the world abode. They form different community groups and carry out various activities to socialise and help each other, being away from their own countries.
Akurana Community Qatar (ACQ) is one such group formed by expatriates hailing from Akurana in Kandy Sri Lanka. Since its formation in late 2015, the group has been very active in bringing the people from Akurana living in Qatar together. The group members have been involved in different social and welfare activities in Qatar and Sri Lanka.
Zameer Nayeem has been working as a contract administrator in the construction area for about six and a half years. He formed ACQ with the objective of getting to know more people from his hometown residing in Doha. During a recent interaction with Community, Zameer shared the details of his group and its works.
“I felt lonely when I came to Qatar from UK. Though I live with my wife and a two-year-old son, the idea of meeting people from my hometown Akurana has always fascinated me,” said Zameer, who also takes part in social welfare activities carried out by other community groups in Qatar.
He added, “In 2012, some people tried to form a society for Akurana natives in Qatar but nothing really materialised. Back in February 2015 I had a meeting with fellow compatriots, including Riyas Mohamed, Rifas Kaleel, Arshard Sameen and Irfan Nuhman and we decided to form ACQ and started collecting data for potential members. Today we have about 200 registered members and we know that there are about 1, 000 natives of our hometown working in Qatar.”
“We elect our executive committee after every two years. Ilham Abdul Cader is the current president of ACQ for the session of 2019-2020. We have our rules and regulations for the members. We have seven sub-committees that work for different subjects ranging from education to social welfare.”
“We have carried out different activities back in Sri Lanka as well. In 2016, we started our socialising activities with a cricket tournament and an Iftar programme. Same year, our members also provided necessary food items and helped the flood victims back in Sri Lanka. We also conduct career counselling programmes in Akurana for the people who intend to seek work in Qatar. We also distribute exercise books among schoolchildren at the start of new academic year,” Zameer noted.
“In 2017 with the help of our members ACQ started constructing a house for a widow in Akurana. The house is near completion and we will start another house in 2019. We plan to build houses for the widows who have no one to support them. In the beginning of 2018, our members extended their support to the victims of unfortunate riots in Akurana as well. We also helped one of our members to re-establish his father’s bakery, torched during the riots. In the long run we plan to extend more and more support for the education of the children,” the founder said.
He added, “On Friday (today), we will organise our 3rd Annual Winter gathering at Dahl Al Hammam Park. We will launch our community website on the occasion as well. Except our own activities, the members also take part in different activities organised by Federation of Sri Lankan Muslims Association Qatar under the aegis of Embassy of Sri Lanka. Our group is duly registered with the federation.”
Zameer went on to say, “Through our platform, we have helped many people in Qatar. We have also been training our members to always respect and obey the laws of Qatar. We have taken part in different welfare activities, including blood donation and beach clean-ups.”
“We have been able to be helpful to others is because of being in Qatar. We have better resources here. We are at ease to carry out our social activities in Qatar. We enjoy being here and helping others. Qatar has helped us to help others,” said Zameer.