As a Muslim, Omar Nemer is a big believer in charity and giving back to people in need.
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The Homeless Hub in Wollongong has always held a “special place” in his heart.
So on Wednesday the Samaras’ restaurant owner and members of Wollongong’s Islamic community took “great pleasure” in pitching in to help keep some of the locals who have been sleeping rough, well-fed.
Mr Nemer said while it should be a foundation of everyone’s life to give back to people who are less fortunate, acts of kindness during and after the holy month of Ramadan, was important for Muslims.
“It is an absolute pleasure to be able to give these wonderful people in our community a feed,” he said.
“Ramadan is to fast, to not eat or drink or consume anything between sunrise and sunset.
“We are fortunate enough to be able to eat once the sun goes down, but there's a lot of people that are less fortunate and actually can't eat when the sun goes down.
“We appreciate what we do have by fasting and understand that there is people less fortunate out there, and we accept and appreciate our lives a lot more.”
Mr Nemer and members of the Masjid As Salaam Mosque and the Essence of Life group also did their mid-day prayer at the Homeless Hub.
“To be able to pray here is an absolutely beautiful thing and we are honoured to be able to do that,” he said.
Wollongong Homeless Hub support worker Toni White thanked Samaras and the Islamic community for the lunch.
“It has been a great day and lots of full bellies for the cold weather that will be happening over the weekend as well,” she said.
‘’This was an awesome event. We are so thankful to the guys and Omar and his team from Samaras for providing a community lunch for our guys here that attend the Homeless Hub and members of the community as well.”
Imam Jamil El-Biza said the lunch was “our way of giving back”.
“Our religion tells us to give during the month of Ramadan and we are just continuing that. The Homeless Hub is a special place for us and we are grateful to have had the opportunity to provide this lunch,” he said.
Mr Nemer said because less people than expected attended the lunch, another free feed will be held next week away from “prying cameras”.
Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
