UC Riverside: Ahmadiyya Muslim Students' Association recognized for multiple successful blood drives

“Being Muslims who believe in the Messiah, serving our communities is one of the highest priorities in our faith." [Zakaria Sayed -  AMSA-UCR]

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | US Desk
Source: AMSA - UC Riverside
By Ahmadiyya Times staff | April 13, 2010

When Zakaria Sayed, a student at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), was paged over the PA system, he thought he was in a trouble of some sort. No, not at all.

Actually it was 'UCR Ahmadiyya", the members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Students’ Association (AMSA) at UC Riverside who were being summoned to be recognized by the Red Cross for having collected the “Highest Number of Bags” of blood in a quarter by an new sponsor.


Joined by Farhad Hashmi, AMSA Vice president at UCR and Hamza Hashmi, Farhad’s younger brother, Zack and company have been organizing monthly blood drives for the benefit of the Red Cross.

The blood collection is a full day event, typically starting at 8am and lasts until 8pm.

The organization makes sure that at least one AMSA member is always present to sort out the donors while their comrades are out encouraging potential donors to show.

“We want to assure that Red Cross and all our local medical facilities have adequate blood supply,” Says Zakaria Sayed. “Being Muslims who believe in the Messiah, serving our communities is one of the highest priorities in our faith."

Zakaria and his fellow AMSA members belong to Majlis Khuddam-ul Ahmadiyya (MKA-USA), an  Ahmadiyya Muslim youth organization in the United States.

MKA-USA has challenged its members with a tall goal to help collect 2,000 bags of blood nationwide.

AMSA-UCR alone has met 25% of the entire MKA-USA goal for the contest period by having already collected over 500 bags of blood.

“It is fun to participate in the contest, but that really is not the point here,” Says Sayed. “We do it to save lives and we do it by the most personal mean -by giving blood. This is much more rewarding.”

Along with their local blood drives, AMSA also organizes booths for promoting Humanity First, an international disaster relief organization working in many parts of the world including for the post-earthquake relief operations in Haiti.

Fahad Rajpoot, who represents Humanity First locally, acknowledged the extraordinary efforts by AMSA-UCR for the organization.


The staff of Ahmadiyya Times offers sincere congratulation to Ahmadiyya Muslim Students’ Association at UC Riverside and its nationwide affiliates for their superb humanitarian relief efforts.  

-- Ahmadiyya Times staff