380 people benefit during this month of Ramadan from iftar meals distributed by the T2 Riv Association. Donors, often anonymous, participate in this initiative of solidarity with the most needy. Report
The closer the time for breaking the fast approaches, the longer the queue in front of the pizzeria the day before yesterday, on this night of Destiny, the eve of the 27e Ramadan day. But this fast food located on the road to Raouad, next to the El Wafa high school, is not serving this evening the famous dish with the miraculous recipe which has made Italy so popular in the world, but rather hot meals for 380 people. During thirty days of Ramadan, the pizzeria is converted into a place for storing foodstuffs, preparing dishes and distributing them to a precarious and needy population who come mainly from the surrounding neighborhoods. This solidarity action, whose slogan is “Draw on your wealth to help your neighbour”, is organized by the Tunis branch of the Association Tunisiens des deux rives. Every day, throughout the holy month, she stimulates a beautiful group dynamic within the team in charge of the project and an increasingly broad movement of sharing and charity.
Donors with a charitable soul
This is the second year that the Association, known by the initials T2 RiV, has taken such a bet thanks to Tunisian-Tunisian funding. The Tunisians of France, who launched the NGO in 2011 and support the other activities of the branch, social and of the social economy type in particular, are not involved in this project.
“When we decided to embark on the adventure of distributing hot Ramadan meals, we had very few resources. Donors then began to arrive and then pour in. I would never have thought that Tunisians were so generous, so sensitive to social fragility and their soul so charitable. A great discovery for me! And then the Ramadan baraka is great! », affirms Arslan Ghorbel, president of T2 Riv and director in an oil company.
And if during the first days of the holy month, chicken was the king of the menu, from the second half of the month of fasting more expensive ingredients such as mutton and beef increasingly imposed themselves.
That evening, moreover, the menu of this hearty restaurant looked gargantuan: barley and mutton soup, green salad, cheese tagine, bread, couscous with mutton, curdled milk, mineral water and strawberries and dates.
“The cuisine here is tasty and perfectly spiced. We enjoyed the macaroni last night”, says a lady in her thirties waiting to be served. Her attendant, carrying her own boxes in a basket ready to be filled with the daily specials, nods in agreement.
Eat like at home
“We cook like at home. And we also serve like at home by not skimping on the quantity and by adding to those who wish it another part of the coveted dish», assures Mohamed Essafi, the real linchpin of the whole operation and the owner of the pizzeria. Because Mohamed Essafi has behind him a respectable career in the field of restaurants of the heart of Ramadan having in the past taken part for eight years in such operations. It is among other things thanks to the sectors that he knows well, benefactor merchants, department stores, donors that this action of T2 Rives took shape. His unfailing credibility and honesty have something to do with it. His energy and dynamism as well. And at the time of the distribution of iftar meals when we need the most hands, his place fills with people: his two children aged 13 and 15, neighbors, six scouts led by their leader Meftah Khezami and two members of the Tunisian Council for Refugees. All united once morest hunger and deprivation!
Meftah Khezami is convinced: “Supporting this initiative is a way to guarantee it a long life.”
Lina Ouled Abdallah from the Tunisian Refugee Council comes every early followingnoon with her partner from the NGO to help in the kitchens and then help deliver food to the 380 beneficiaries. In return, T2 Rives offers them 37 meals, which they will in turn give to Syrian, Sudanese, Libyan and sub-Saharan asylum seekers residing near Bhar Lazrag in La Marsa.
Lina particularly appreciates the benevolent hive atmosphere that reigns here: “We share the same values, made of solidarity and harmony between people of all generations, all nationalities and all colors”, she confides.
Faced with the felt and expressed needs of the populations benefiting from the iftar meals, Arslan Ghorbel is already thinking of giving a new dimension to this restaurant of the heart by continuing the initiative throughout the year.
