After a two-year break due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ankara hosted the sixth International Mercy Award ceremony, established by the country's Religious Affairs Department. The event was attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The purpose of the award was to draw attention to interesting charitable projects around the world and the social problems they are designed to solve, reports the Daily Sabah.
This year's winners are British musician Yusuf Islam, American Muslim convert Siraj Wahhay, former Turkish model and actress Gamze Ozcelik, an elderly mosque carpenter, Ali Onder and Imam Ahmet Aydemir.
Yusuf Islam was awarded for his Peace Train project, in which the Yusuf Islam Foundation delivers food and basic necessities to underprivileged people in different countries, as well as creates access to drinking water and builds playgrounds in poor regions of the world.
New Yorker Siraj Wahhai has received an award for transforming a Brooklyn store into a prayer room where she teaches Islamic classes and spreads knowledge.
Gamze Ozcelik has long been known in Turkey for her charitable work. This time she received an award for building wells in Cameroon and helping orphans in Syria.
88-year-old craftsman Ali Onder was awarded for making carved minbars for mosques in Turkey for free.
Ahmet Aydemir, the imam of one of the mosques in the province of Nevsehir, received an award for organizing work with children. Together with the small parishioners of the mosque, they planted a garden around the mosque and decorated the area with flowers. In addition, the imam purchased a kitchen for the mosque, where volunteers prepare free food for those in need.
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