Obama's Grandma To Perform Haj LA GRAND-MERE D'HUSSEIN O. VA FAIRE LE "HAJ"

Thursday, 30 April 2009

Tom Spender, The National Sarah Obama lives in a tiny village in Kenya. Kate Holt / EPA ABU DHABI // Dr Sulaiman al Fahim, the chief executive of Hydra Properties, has offered to take Barack Obama’s Kenyan grandmother with him on the Haj pilgrimage in November. Dr al Fahim met Sarah Obama on a trip to Kenya last week. “I don’t have a mother so I asked her how about if she joined me,” said Dr al Fahim yesterday. “I will accompany her if she is willing to go and if she is capable of going because of her age.” Mrs Obama, a Muslim in her late 80s known locally as “Mama Sarah”, lives without electricity or running water and speaks no English. She told a leading Kenyan newspaper that she hopes to take Dr al Fahim up on his offer. “I will go,” she told the Daily Nation. “If it’s possible, I will make it.” Mrs Obama has never been on the Haj, and Dr al Fahim said he would be able to personally help her during a visit to Mecca. “I have been on the Haj before and being an Arab I can translate for her and show her the area.” Mrs Obama, who lives in Kogelo, a tiny village near the Ugandan border, was catapulted into the public eye after her grandson’s victory in the US presidential elections last November. Dr al Fahim and Mrs Obama both work as UN Goodwill Ambassadors alongside the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition along with one of Mr Obama’s uncles and Remigo Maradona, brother of the Argentinian footballer Diego. During his trip to Kenya, Dr al Fahim visited a centre that feeds 120 malnourished children a day and also gives them an education. The children also play in a youth football team organised by Mr Maradona. IIMSAM promotes spirulina, a protein-rich algae, as a dietary supplement. “We are trying to found an area free of hunger and I want to go back there again and again,” said Dr al Fahim. “There are many people in Kenya who don’t have support and need help. It is a duty to support these people.” But the property magnate, who was orphaned in 1998 when both his parents and younger brother died in a car accident, also wants to reach out to families facing hardship in the northern emirates, which are poorer than Abu Dhabi or Dubai. “You find difficulty in every country,” said Dr al Fahim, who is best known for hosting the reality television programme Hydra Executives. “There are cases in the UAE, particularly in the northern Emirates, but these people do not go to the media to complain about their situation and stoke attention. So we need to discover these people.” He and a group of other young Emiratis are attempting to secure patronage for their initiative, which would also see young Emiratis volunteer to help families suffering hardship. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""