Turkish foundation donates frozen meat

YOGYAKARTA: Yogyakarta municipality deputy regent Haryadi Suyuti helped distribute some 26,000 packages of frozen meat on Saturday, donated by a Turkish foundation based in Australia. The donation was provided for economically disadvantaged families.

The gifts were part of a total 30,000 packages of sacrificed meat that the Mahmud Es’ad Cosan (MEC) Foundation donated to Indonesian people this year. Four thousand packages were distributed to people in Medan people, North Sumatra.

“This is the third time that we have distributed sacrificed meat to Yogyakarta people,” foundation member Ali Cetin said on the sidelines of the ceremony at Mandala Krida Stadium. The total meat donated to Indonesian people this year was 102 tons, he said.

Affluent Muslims are obliged to sacrifice livestock during the Day of Sacrifice observed annually on Dzulhijah 10, according to the Islamic calendar. The meat is intended to be distributed to the needy.

The program for sending sacrificed meat to Indonesia started five years ago within the will of MEC founder, the late Prof. Dr. Mahmud Es’ad Cosan, Ali said.

“He asked us to do so before he died as a way of maintaining brotherhood with Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, and the closest neighbor to Australia,” Ali said. — JP