People urged to give charity through donate.om portal

MUSCAT: An awareness campaign has been launched by Oman’s Information Technology Authority (ITA), urging people to give charity through donate.om, a donations portal in Oman.

Every year, the ITA organises an awareness and promotional campaign for the portal, which is carried out through the Authority’s social media accounts, besides other mass media to make people aware about the portal and urge them to donate through it.

The portal was created in 2009 to enable anyone to donate from anywhere and at any time by choosing the type of donation and charity to be donated to, thus sending donations electronically through the bankcard, making the process smooth and fast.

The portal consists of 25 organisations, including the Environment Society of Oman (ESO), Al Noor Association for the Blind, Oman Cancer Association (OCA), Oman Diabetes Association (ODA) and other NGOs.

The total amount that has been donated since the launch of the portal has reached more than OMR2,293,823.57 and the number of donors is pegged at more than 89,000. These statistics are updated every day on the portal making it more transparent for the donors.

ITA has worked hard in cooperation with Omani charitable societies and with the support of the Ministry of Social Development (MoSD) to design and activate this portal. The Times of Oman had recently reported that charitable organisations were seeking donations in the holy month of Ramadan and that religious leaders had called on more people to donate.

Dr Shamsa Al Harthy, Dar Al Ata’a director, said, “We have seen a larger increase in families coming in for help, more than any other year.

“However, we’ve noticed that companies have not donated as much as they used to. This may be due to economic circumstances, but we also noticed that companies have been organising their own charity drives with the help of employees.”

“Islam urges everyone to donate, whatever you have means something to other people. So give Sadaqah, the Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) said to get a way to get away from hellfire is giving Sadaqah or charity.

“Even if you are poor, you can still give, even giving away half a date can save you from hellfire,” said Sheikh Hilal Al Rashdi, advisor at the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs.