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Tuesday, 5 July 2011 00:35 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Saudi Arabia has donated 150 metric tonnes of dates to Sri Lanka for distribution at mosques during the forthcoming holy month of Ramadan.
A Saudi Arabian Ministry of Finance official, Mansour Al-Yousef has handed the consignment at a simple ceremony at the Saudi Embassy in Colombo to the Sri Lankan Senior Minister A.H.M. Fowzie, in the presence of Farouk Mohamed Wazeer Ali, Charge d’Affaires of the Saudi Embassy in Colombo.
Minister Fowzie has said that these dates will be distributed at all mosques throughout the country. Some 2,000 mosques are spread throughout Sri Lanka and around 8 percent of the country’s 21 million population is Muslim.
Minister Fowzie has also said that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has helped Sri Lanka in good and bad times, and has reminded that Saudi Arabia funded 500 houses for tsunami victims at a cost of Saudi Riyal 2 million, and provided assistance worth Saudi Arabian Riyal 75 million for the construction of an epilepsy and diagnosis hospital in Colombo, the first of its kind in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka receives donation of dates from many Middle East countries for distribution to Muslims through the mosques.
Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Jordan are other countries that regularly donate consignments of dates for distribution in this manner.
(www.iina.me.com)
