Staff at Alder Hey Children's Hospital weren't expecting a visit from an Iraqi diplomat and a vanload of food and toys when they started work this week.
Helen Hughes, the hospital's events and community fundraising manager, was surprised when she got a call from the Liverpool Region Mosque Network (LRMNet) with an offer of 100 hampers full of fruit, pasta, tea, milk, toys and sanitary products for kids and their families.
She said: "I know they'll be greatly received by the children, and the food hampers will be fantastic for the families. It's just amazing to have the Liverpool Region Mosque Network and LFC Foundation working together and making this donation. It's a huge, it's more than what we were expecting."
READ MORE: I went to Liverpool’s largest mosque as Muslims prepare to mark end of Ramadan
Alder Hey was just the first stop on a day of deliveries in the week of Eid, marking the end of Ramadan, a month where Muslims fast, pray and share food together. This year, Eid was on Friday, April 21.
The journey started at Anfield Stadium where staff in hi-vis vests packed supplies, sourced by Liverpool FC's stores team, into 500 boxes before Tawhid Islam and Fawad Munir collected them with a van through the players' entrance.
Liverpool FC's official charity and LRMNet first teamed up to tackle food poverty four years ago. Tawhid estimates they've helped more than 10,000 people in that time, with the football club's "well-oiled machine" multiplying the impact of donations by using its brand to secure best deals from suppliers.
That was certainly the case when one of the two delivery vans was out of service that morning, and LFC's charity stepped in to help shift boxes.
Terri Ritchie, manager of the Liverpool FC Foundation's equality, diversity and inclusion department, said: "It's all about using the power of the badge to serve the community. We're aware of food poverty in and around Liverpool, and we want to be there to support people who need it most.
"Whether they love football, love Liverpool Football Club, whether they're a fan or not a fan, it's all about supporting those who most need it."
During Operation Christmas Magic last December, the two organisations delivered food and gifts to 500 families struggling with the spiralling cost of living at a time of celebration with family and friends.
Tawhid, the director of his own accountancy firm, Islam & Co., told the ECHO: "It's very much the same around Eid as we come to the end of Ramadan. There's a lot of happiness, a lot of preparation, people getting food ready. And again, we have so much suffering in the community, people who just can't afford to make ends meet with the cost of living crisis.
"We can't really see how we can be so happy and just let other people suffer, so we try and focus around these types of festivals to just spread our happiness amongst the community as much as we can."
For 'Eid Aid' on Tuesday, April 18, the LRMNet and LFC Foundation also partnered with the Consulate General of the Republic of Iraq in Manchester. The counsulate sent counsellor Nawar Sadiq Jawad to join the first drop-off at Alder Hey.
He joined the Manchester mission three years ago after stints as a diplomat in India, Qatar and Hungary. Mr Jawad said: "I have the honour now to serve in the UK and I see the diversity of people and religion. The cousin of the Prophet Muhammad, the Imam Ali (considered by Shia Muslims to be the first imam), had a very famous saying, 'All of us are like brothers - if we are not brothers in religion, we are brothers in humanity'."
Hampers went out across Liverpool, to the Yemeni Community Centre and Al Rahma Mosque in Toxteth, and to Sefton Mosque. Tawhid and Fawad also drove through the tunnel to Birkenhead where they delivered milk and hampers to The Hive and Woodlands Primary.
Ferdushi Mohshin, a year one teacher, was grateful for "such an incredible gift" from the "humble" pair. The streets around the school, and the neighbouring Wirral Islamic Cultural Centre and Shahjalal Mosque, form the most Muslim area of the Wirral. More than a third of residents were Muslim in the 2021 Census.
It's also quite a deprived areas and the school, like many, struggles to stretch its budget. Ferdushi, whose mum raised her and eight siblings in the West Midlands, knows what it's like to be a child receiving free school meals.
She said: "When you're just feeling regular hungry, can you concentrate? Can you give the best of your ability? It makes a huge difference.
"That's why the National Education Union have a campaign going about wanting free school meals for all primary school children, because we really believe everybody should have enough food and drink. In the fifth richest country in the world, we shouldn't really have to struggle with that.
"With Ramadan, with working in schools, this gift - they probably don't realise the impact it really has, and the difference it can make. It's wonderful to be able to give back, if we're lucky enough, and that's what Ramadan is about as well, so it's just lovely. Football seems to bring everyone together, not just the mosques."
Charity, or zakat, is one of the five pillars of Islam - along with faith in God, prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage to Mecca, the holiest city for Muslims - all of which play a key role in Ramadan.
Fawad, owner of Yellow Sub play centre and a volunteer with LRMNet, said: "Ramadan is a reset, a yearly reset. We live our lives in such a way where everything is available to us freely, and sometimes when that happens, you forget about core things that matter in life.
"Abstinence from food and drink is to give you a bit of self-control. Not everything is readily available. But that's only a small part of it. The other part of it is remembrance of God, in this time, and that you are on this earth, purely for the sake of Allah. In addition to that is to use this period to think about others."
The day ended with a free communal iftar - the evening meal when Muslims break fast during Ramadan - in the Great Hall of St George's Hall. It was the first time the Islamic call to prayer, recited by Ahmed Qattani from Toxteth, has been heard in the venue decorated with statues, chandeliers and a stained-glass window.
Hundreds came to pray under the widest tunnel vault ceiling in the UK, before breaking fast with dates and water, and a meal of falafel and rice or chips. Liverpool Council's deputy mayor Frazer Lake, Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner Emily Spurrell, and LFC Foundation chief executive Matt Parish, and Tawhid gave speeches.
Among the attendees was Omid Zohoori, looking brighter, more confident and energetic than when he spoke to the ECHO at Taste Ramadan on the Pier Head last year. That was his first Ramadan in Liverpool since arriving in the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021.
A year ago, the former British forces interpreter and his wife were still adjusting to life in a new city and country without family and friends surrounding them for special moments like breaking fast during Ramadan. He was unsure whether he'd find work in his desired industry of solar energy.
Now, the 33-year-old is working as a field engineer, with an 11-month-old son called Ayan. Omid said: "It's amazing being here. The mentality feels so different seeing a lot of people gather together. I saw a couple of my colleagues from back home. One of them I used to work with in 2010 - I saw him, but I didn't get to meet him."
Matt Parish, CEO of the LFC Foundation, which runs football sessions for isolated people living in hotels, said: "We're supporting new members of our community here in Liverpool, refugees coming to the city and region. There've obviously been publicised issues recently, but this makes clear that that's the minority. That's not representative of our city and the people of Liverpool.
"In the team we run out of Anfield on a Saturday afternoon, we celebrate Mo Salah, our biggest player, from Egypt. He's iconic. From speaking to universities, applicants from predominantly Muslim countries have gone up with Mo and Sadio, so it's good to work with the Liverpool Region Mosque Network and Islamic Relief to offer an opportunity for people to come together."
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