Muslim charity event helps raise funds for The Scarborough Hospital

Muslims in Scarborough are coming together this Saturday, June 9, to support an advance in local health care, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine recently at The Scarborough Hospital's Birchmount Campus.


More than 400 are expected at a fundraising dinner organized by the Scarborough Muslim Association at Jame Abu Bakr Siddique on Lawrence Avenue East.


A few tickets for the June 9 event - printed with the Arabic phrase "Sadqah for Shifaa," which means "Charity for Cure" - are still available through the group's office at 416-750-2253, said Saleh Hafejee, a spokesperson.


Among the scheduled speakers will be the imam of the mosque, Kasim Ingar, Dr. Pervez Ali, an orthopedic surgeon and TSH CEO Dr. John Wright.


TSH Foundation President Michael Mazza said this week he is proud of how the Muslim community has supported the MRI campaign, which has seen $4.2 million raised or pledged and aims at securing another $800,000 needed for the machine by this fall.


The hospital has been working with the community on providing halal food and more modest gowns for its Muslim patients as well as improving after-death practices at the hospital, Mazza said.