The Muslim Students Association has a unique approach to fighting world hunger: fasting. Every year during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Muslims fast daily to purify their hearts and give thanks for their many blessings.
In the spirit of Ramadan, the national Muslim Students Association created an event to raise hunger awareness: Fast-a-Thon. The basic idea behind the Fast-a-Thon event is that for every student that pledges to fast from sunup to sundown today $1 will be donated by local sponsors to the Capital Area Food Bank. This may seem like an insignificant amount, but when 2,500 students pledge to fast, it adds up.
Fast-a-Thon started at the University of Texas six years ago, along with other college campuses, as a part of the national movement of association to create an event to foster hunger awareness. Since its inception, the event has picked up momentum and continues to grow, this year with more than 240 campuses across North America participating. Due to the changing dates of the month of Ramadan according to the Muslim lunar calendar, this is the first year that Fast-a-Thon at UT is not during Ramadan. Fast-a-Thon, however, is always organized in the spirit of the important Muslim holy month.
"MSA has always been the sponsor of Fast-a-Thon, and it has always been in the month of Ramadan, which is the holy month for Muslims. We fast for 30 days. So, basically, in the spirit of that, in the spirit of giving back, it was created," said Farah Ahmed, public relations director of MSA and Plan II and government junior.
This year, MSA hopes to raise the amount of donations made to $3,000 by recruiting even more pledges, according to Ahmed. In addition to their monetary goal, MSA has two main goals for Fast-a-Thon.
"The first [goal] is to increase hunger awareness around the world and in the Austin community - that's why we give back to the Capital Area Food Bank specifically," Ahmed said. "The other goal is to make people aware of what fasting is, why Muslims fast for 30 days during Ramadan and what they go through."
After the fasting ends today at 5:40 p.m., MSA will put on a celebratory Iftaar dinner to break the fast together. Volunteers from MSA plan and organize the dinner, getting all different kinds of food donations - including Mexican, Chinese, American and Arabic-style cuisine - from various Austin restaurants. This year the dinner will take place in Gregory Gymnasium, and MSA expects about 850 attendees.
Every year, MSA tries to get more volunteers and more people to fast. For the past two weeks, MSA volunteers have been tabling for three hours per day. Also, this Monday and Tuesday before the fast, MSA volunteers tabled for four hours per day on the West Mall stage to promote their event, using the icon of a milk carton and the motto, "Got Hunger?"
Although the Muslim Students Association sponsors and plans the event, students from all different backgrounds and religions participate in the common goal of raising money for charity. According to Ahmed, leaders from the University Interfaith counsel, as well as Jewish and other leaders from the UT community, have helped.
"Everybody is very supportive, because it is a good goal - to increase hunger awareness - so it doesn't really matter what religion you are. That's a goal that everybody wants to get to," Ahmed said.
"We don't cater to one particular group or Muslims. It's for everyone. Everyone is human. Everyone has a heart. We all want hunger to stop, so it's a universal goal for everyone," said Javeed Bora, a government senior and MSA volunteer.
The common goals of Fast-a-Thon, or any event like it that promotes action to help the less fortunate or improve the world, are something that almost everyone can relate to, no matter what culture or religion.
"It gets people together, on different levels - the Austin community, in terms of sponsorship, the UT community, the Muslim community, the non-Muslim community. It really transcends all of that. It's about the event and about the people and trying to help out," said Nida Khan, MSA president and government senior.
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