Fathi The Opening

This is the first Ramadan without my brother Fathi Karra-Hassan. To lose a sibling is always hard, and the difficult moments are experienced when sharing or expressing family traditions. We sit at the dinner table, mindful of his absence, cautiously avoiding mentioning his name, fearful of the others grief overwhelming us or worse triggering our own grief.

Aged 24, he was a cabinet maker by day and personal trainer by night. He was spirited and curious about the world. In Arabic, his name translate to “one who guides others”, “one who begins” or “something that is open”.

As we tried to process the enormity of the loss and adjust to life without him, we needed to do something positive.

We approached our friends at Muslim Aid Australia and decided to invest in building a smart sustainable village, in a remote island off Vanuatu, called Tanna.

Initially, we intended to build a school, an institution of learning where children would have better opportunities in life. Then we discovered that the village lacked basic water, sanitation and hygiene and there was no medical facilities or emergency services.

In our despair and adversity, we sought to fill the void, and the only way to do that was to give. I don't know if it makes his death feel less terrible, or keeps us distracted long enough to pause the pain.

Either way, I said in those immediate hours after his passing that my brother is more than just a statistic. True to those words, this project will honour his generosity and kindness.

Since his passing, hundreds of people came together to pray for him, bury him and visit our family. We had so many people show compassion, love and friendship, we struggled to convey our deep sense of gratitude.

People gave us money and encouraged us to do charity work in his name like build water wells, which we did, a deep water well in Somalia exists in his name.

We raised enough money to start phase one of the project in Tanna - purchase the land, infrastructure and permaculture design, curriculum development and piping from the active volcano, Mount Yasur. We hope to raise half a million dollars to commence and complete the second phase by November this year, which is to build the school.

To find out more about the project find us on Facebook and Instagram @Fathi The Opening or #fathitheopening.

To donate or support the charity project check out the campaign page below.