KUWAIT: Guyana's Charge d'Affaires Shafraaz Shadood honors Kuwaiti businessman Asad Al-Sanad. - Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

By Ben Garcia

KUWAIT: The Embassy of Guyana and the Central Islamic Organization (CIOG) honored yesterday Kuwaiti businessman Asad Al-Sanad of Al-Sanad Holding Company for their contribution and continued support to the community and people of Guyana. Sanad was honored and presented a plaque of appreciation at the embassy in Mishref by Charge d'Affaires Shafraaz Shadood.

"This is a display of gratitude to the work done by the group of Asad Al-Sanad in Guyana, the most recent being the donation of a full container of facemasks to the people of Guyana. This is very laudable and we would like to express our gratitude for this," Shadood said.

"The close relationship between Guyana and Kuwait began in the 1980s and has strengthened. There have been high-ranking visits between the two countries, and as a result our embassy opened in Kuwait in 2011. There is more room to improve our bilateral ties in the coming years and with the discovery of oil in Guyana, we expect to further strengthen and continue our people-to-people contacts and work together," he said.

Speaking at a press conference, Sanad said the Al-Sanad Trust will continue its work to help countries around the world. "Our family trust is a non-governmental and family affairs charity aimed at helping poor communities around the world. It's been in existence for the past 50 years. There are lots of countries that need our support," he said.

"We have several countries as beneficiaries including Guyana. We recently sent a container of facemasks containing around 800,000 pieces, because it's the most needed thing amid the pandemic all over the world. Over the last six years, we've been helping and working hand-in-hand with the community and people of Guyana. We have schools and computer centers in Guyana and we have scholars whom we support," Sanad said.

"We will continue our program to support our brothers and sisters. We also support other countries like the Philippines, where we have built mosques and schools in various places in Mindanao. We have also installed water wells and toilets. We have an Al-Sanad Village in the Philippines too. We have 249 schools with around 300,000 students all over the world, and we are supporting them in their academic studies, along with 1,200 mosques worldwide," he added.

"This charity work is for the general public and not only for the Muslim community. It's for anyone regardless of religion - we help Hindus, Christians and atheists too. We want everyone to benefit and we will continue this family affair - this is what we are for as people, to share and help because we have extra," Sanad affirmed.