City being built in Indonesia to be named after Mohammed

Disclosing this, Ibrahim bu Melha, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Mohammed Bin Rashid Humanitarian and Charity Foundation, told Khaleej Times that General Shaikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince and UAE Minister of Defence, had allocated Dh4.5 million for the construction of the city comprising 200 houses in addition to mosques, schools, hospitals and wells.

The city will be divided into four neighbourhoods named Aceh Besar, Lumbaru, Kulashila and Pagar, and each would have 50 houses with schools, mosques and wells. The city would be completed by early 2006.

The Foundation gave priority to families with children, and living under pathetic conditions. These families were carefully selected by authorities in Indonesia.

Earlier, addressing a Press conference, Bu Melha said the Foundation had sponsored the purchase of fishing boats by fishermen affected by tsunami in Thailand, and the total amount donated for this was over $250,000. The new boats would give the fishermen a new lease of life.

He said fishing is the backbone of this poor Muslim community, but the tsunami had destroyed so many lives in Khao Phi, a small village, besides wrecking more than 4000 fishing boats, that it left the locals with almost nothing.

Bu Melha said the foundation decided to donate fishing boats to enable the affected fishermen put the disaster behind them, and continue to work in the trade that their families had been practicing for generations. The project will also donate fishing equipment like nets and powerful engines.

He said that unlike other charity organisations which offered their assistance only at the time of emergencies, Mohammed bin Rashid Foundation continued to provide assistance even after the disaster to help in the reconstruction of the affected areas and resettlement of the victims.