JEDDAH — MES Jeddah, which last year made a policy shift in conducting community Iftars during Ramadan, continued its labor camps Iftar this year as well. This was following a shift in its approach towards organizing community Iftars with fanfare and instead organizing Iftars in labor camps for the deserving people, reflecting the spirit of solidarity and charity, thus reaching out to the less privileged. Last year, MES had conducted a series of camp Iftars at various labor camps around Jeddah, mainly in the industrial area and in East Jeddah. This year's MES Camp Iftar was held at the Saudi Glass Company compound in the industrial area which was attended by a large section of the labor community. Consul General of India B.S. Mubarak, who expressed solidarity with the people and appreciated the work being done by MES, too attended the event. V.P. Mohammed Ali, managing director of the Al Rayan Medical Group, also attended the function and complimented the organizers for arranging the event. Appreciating the efforts of MES in this direction, he said that such events help bring various sections of the community in touch with each other. K. P. Abdul Salam, MES treasurer and Alpha Cargo Services official who was the main coordinator of the event, said that the logistics behind organizing such an event was challenging which eventually provided MES with a sense of fulfillment. He mentioned that in the remaining days of Ramadan and the ensuing months, MES intends to proceed with full steam with its next community project of providing safe drinking water to rural communities in India by digging bore wells and traditional wells. Along with its core activity of managing educational institutions, MES is also a leading provider of scholarships to financially backward students back in Kerala. The movement of MES was started by a group of socially conscious people, headed by the late Dr. Abdul Ghafoor in 1964 at Calicut. Well-known professionals, intellectuals, educationists and businessmen whole-heartedly supported it. Today the society runs more than 150 institutions including more than 50 Schools, a number of Post Graduate Colleges, Women's Colleges, many Informal Educational Centres, MES Institute of Information Technology (MES-IIT), MES School of Architecture, Engineering College and Medical College. — SG