A foundation under an online platform on WhatsApp called Katsina City News has collected donations worth up to N5,117,000 which was used to assist the needy during the Ramadan fasting period.
Members of the WhatsApp group are indigenes of Katsina State from various business and polical backgrounds that have come together under one umbrella for the development of Katsina State.
The fasting committee established by the forum is under the leadership of Alhaji Lawal Aliyu Daura, mni, the former Head of Service of Katsina State. Members of the committee include Hajiya Mariya Abdullahi Bakori, Alhaji Ibrahim Ahmad Katsina, Alhaji Lawal Rufai Safana, Alhaji Dauda Kurfi, Hajiya Murja Saulawa, Barister Ahmad Danbaba Batsari, Alhaji Muntari Lawal Kofar Soro, Alhaji Hamza Yunusa Jibia, SSA to the governor, Alhaji Sabo Musa Hassan among others.
This is the fourth year that this committee has undertaken this work during the month of Ramadan.
In the year 2023, the committee gave food and cash assistance to people in need in five hundred families. Every house got rice, corn flour, pasta, maggi and cooking oil as well as a token for shopping.
The committee released seven youths from prison after paying the small fines to the authorities and also settled the fines of twenty women who were taken to court over money-related disputes.
The committee also delivered cooked food to places of special need and hospitals to feed patients that were brought from places outside Katsina town and have no one in Katsina.
The funds for this project are collected by members of this WhatsApp forum called Katsina City News. Some of them donated one thousand Naira, some
a hundred thousand Naira and more.
Muhammad Danjuma is the founder of Katsina City News and Katsina City News magazine. He created the forum in 2015.
He assembled gatherent people from Katsina State to exchange views, share information and discuss issues that affect Katsina State and the country as a whole.
The forum has provided financial assistance several times to different groups in the state.