“The monthly aid provided by the Fund stood at Dh6,000 to every family, and the payment continues until the family’s needs are met”,  Secretary General of the Fund Abdullah Aqeda Al Mohiri told Khaleej Times.

The Fund treats its distributions as confidential and a committee does this on the basis of research studies on each and every case to ensure they deserve the alms, he explained. The Fund is currently carrying out several programmes for distributing the alms to the beneficiaries, of which the “Poor and Needy” is designed to cater to the necessary requirements like food and clothes and ‘Shy-com’ is targeted to those who are shy to ask for alms and charity though they are desperately in need, he said.

The other programmes include the one through which the Fund pays up the debts of defaulters in prison because they failed to pay their due debts.

Tawasol is another programme which aims at assisting the families of  prisoners while Iqra aims at giving help to poor students by paying their fees. The Fund also offers Mawada, which looks after the families of Emirati  
women who married foreign men.

The projects and achievements made by the Fund are the first of its kind in the region, he underlined.

The Zakat Fund was the brainchild of Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, former President of the UAE.

Al Mohiri  also said the fund had introduced a number of schemes in collaboration with etisalat. Under the programme, Zakat can be paid through special ATM machines. The Fund has also created a website to enlighten the Muslims on the importance of Zakat as essential pillar of the Islam. The website has a section for answering queries on Zakat and how and when should it be payable, he added.

adel@khaleejtimes.com