American Bedu

Alaa Al-Shuwayer was kind enough to allow me to share his words from the heart and also to let others know ways they too can help those who are still struggling from the impact of the Jeddah floods.

I Just Couldn’t Pray

Alaa Al-Shuwayer, Jeddah

Dear friends, this isn’t a forward and not a make believe story, this is my own experience, myself, Alaa Alshuwayer on Monday, December 12^th, 2009.

I left my house in a hurry minutes before Asr prayer to meet ladies from WAMY (World Assembly of Muslim Youth) who were going to Quwayzah which is one of the areas that were hit by the floods in Jeddah, I heard the prayer call for ASR on the way and thought to myself “I’ll pray there, I am sure I’ll find a way.”

I got into their car and in 20 minutes we were in Quwayzah and the horror began, the stench hit us before we opened the car doors.

We had to change cars and get into a marked jeep that could navigate in the streets of Quwayzah without its wheels getting stuck in the mud.

I froze in silence at the sights.

There was not a street that wasn’t muddy, there wasn’t a wall that wasn’t stained, filth and dirt and piles and piles of damaged things lined up against the houses.

We wrapped our scarves around our noses and got out of the car, the first house we saw was roofless, full of sewage-filled mud, the man who lived there was throwing out everything in the house, and he had no water, no electricity and nothing to wash out that smelly sticky dirt. His house was wrecked, it wasn’t a home, it could never be a home, it was dirtier and filthier than a gutter, and the flood had dragged in so much sewage water and filth into his house that it would take him a very long time before he would be rid of the najasa (impurities). I could never pray there, I wondered how he had prayed on that dirt, I wondered how he slept and ate on sewage; I wondered how without water he could get that dirt out.

We went into another house a meter underground, the lady had 6 girls who were all scraping the sewage dirt of their walls, she said they had lost everything, they had to throw our their appliances, couches, chairs, tables, plates and every najasa-filled item, the house was bare, they only had left their fill of filthy walls and floors and yet they smiled and said they were lucky, they had just received electricity after 12 days of the floods, they had a water reservoir which, if cleaned out from the sewage water and dirt and purified, would help them clean up and drink hopefully clean water.

I couldn’t pray there either, the floor was full of najasa, and the water too, how can I make wudu? Can I do tayamum with filthy dirt?

How were they praying? How were they brushing their teeth? How were they showering after getting stained with the flood water? What water did they use to cook?

I looked outside, there was no minimarket in sight were I could buy fresh water.

Another home and another sad miserable story, abandoned women, desperate looking children, people were begging us to come see their homes, they pleaded “come look at my home, my ceiling caved in, I have no food, we have no water, we have no cars to go buy anything, we have no tools to clean our homes, we have no money to ride a bus or taxi, we lost our money, clothes, books.” Not only were they in a terrible situation, they were helpless to get basic supplies.

There was no house where I could pray, the filth was everywhere, I looked down at my muddy shoes, my stained abaya, I smelled my hands, I couldn’t pray, I was filthy too, I heard the call for Magreb prayer.

Im not sending this email to entertain, these desperately poor families need at least water to clean up thier homes to at least be able to pray, to eat clean food, we have to help them fix their water tanks, there are 500 homes with water tanks that are broken and full of sewage water. Imagine living in sewage. you can go and see this for yourselves, Quayzah is only minutes from Al-Hamra District and only 30 minutes from Tahlia Street.

The pictures are not pictures of dumps, they are of homes, picture 12 is of the first man’s house, picture 16 is of the books that beloged to the young girls, and picture 6 is of a man’s car which was his way of earning money.

If you care to help, WAMY is seeking donations to help people get back on their feet or purify clean water tanks. Contact them at:

they want every 10 families like us to adopt 1 family from the flood victims, the 10 families would have to pay 5000 riyals in total and only once, the idea is to just help them get through this catastrophe then maybe they can rebuild their lives on their own.  More help would be education and jobs etc but for now as an emergency situation this will do.

Another idea is funding the water tank cleaning program which costs only 500 riyals for each family. This is what I’m promoting because i feel that it’s dangerous that they are still living on sewage.

the contacts in WAMY are Mohammad Sulaiman 0567837621 and Majd Siraj eldeen 0504603099.  Majd is on site every day from 7am to 6pm assessing the family’s needs.   Anybody can visit WAMY at their center and they take people on site visits so you know where your money is going and you could choose a specific family to help.

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