APPETITE FOR GIVING
Paramount Fine Foods teams up with UN agency to help Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh,
Ramadan is the month of giving, and the CEO of Paramount Fine Foods wants to take advantage of that charitable spirit to help Rohingya refugees. Mohamad Fakih, the CEO of the Middle Eastern restaurant chain, is teaming up with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to raise funds for the Rohingya, an ethnic group that has been forced to flee its native Burma due to what many have called an attempted ethnic cleansing.
Since last August, nearly 700,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence.
“We’re using Ramadan as the month of giving to encourage people to think of others,” Fakih said. “People have the appetite to give back.”
Fakih aims to raise $800,000, which UNHCR will use to provide food, shelter and other necessities to Rohingya refugees, many of whom are in Bangladesh. “These people have gone through enough,” Fakih said. “It can’t wait, it’s an emergency, and the private sector should play a role.”
Fakih’s charity, The Mohamad Fakih Foundation, will match the highest donation raised by any Canadian business leader or collected by one of his 38 Paramount Fine Foods loca- tions during Ramadan.
“We did this in Somalia before, we did this for the Syrian refugees, we’re ready to do this again and again,” Fakih said about his charitable initiatives.
“We are here to help everyone, this is what UNHCR does, this is what Paramount stands for.”
Giving money is not the only way to help refugees, Fakih says. He encourages people to use their talents and volunteer as well.
“We need our children to start volunteering, even if they do a small part. Together, they’ll do a big part,” he said. “You can volunteer with what you know, it’s your time, your expertise.”
Fakih has also helped refugees by hiring them. He employed more than 100 refugees in his stores in 2017 alone.
“They’re skilled. Let’s stop looking at them like they can only be dishwashers or taxi drivers,” he said.
“They’re good enough to do bigger jobs.”
The campaign runs until June 14.