By Nawara Fattahova

KUWAIT: Different companies and businesses took the initiative to help the stores that were damaged in the Souq Mubarakiya blaze two weeks ago. Some stores offered the damaged stores to sell their products in their own stores, and even removed their original products to provide them space. Meanwhile, some online businesses offered them their platform to sell their products free of charge.

Marshoud Al-Marshoud, CEO of one of those companies, offered to display damaged stores' perfumes and products at their store. "The next day of the blaze, we posted on Twitter our initiative for the damaged stores to sell their products such as perfumes, bukhoor and others at our store in Souq Mubarakiya, which wasn't affected by the blaze, till the end of Ramadan. We even removed our products from the store to avoid affecting their sales," Marshoud told Kuwait Times.

"Since the initiative was posted, only three stores are displaying their products at our store," he said. "We have space for more products. We also don't mind extending the offer for them even after the end of Ramadan. We don't know when the damaged shops will be restored, but we hope it will happen soon. People in Kuwait like to help others, and I know many other businesses also offered help for the damaged shops."

Nawafa Al-Arbash, CEO of a jewelry company, also offered the damaged stores to display their products at their gifts store that is located at Al-Raya shopping mall. "We received many messages thanking our initiative, but none of the damaged shops came to display their products at our store yet," he said. "Maybe they feel embarrassed, or they have other stores or other solutions for selling their products. I guess that nowadays most businesses are offering selling online, so maybe they managed to work it out. But my offer is still available till Souq Mubarakiya is rebuilt, and it can take about 30 products or more."

Online platforms also participated in this initiative. An app and website selling flowers, gifts and confections also announced their initiative through Twitter to reach the damaged stores. "We offered the chance to them to sell their products for conducting their businesses. The interaction of people with my Tweet was impressive and showed that people reacted emotionally and that they want to help, especially during Ramadan. They helped by spreading the word around," said Sleman Al-Tarrah, the company's CEO. "This initiative is part of our corporate social responsibility. We always do charitable activities around the world. Our culture is built on that. If we did something it will come back. We are doing that from our heart".

"We are very picky in selecting the businesses on our platform. They must meet our criteria. In our initiative, we welcome any of the damaged businesses in Mubarakiya if they are licensed to come onboard and place their products. They can sell their products without commission for the cause. We offer them open-ended contract with zero fees. But until now none of these businesses applied," Tarrah also said.