How A Mysterious Man Put A Fridge At His Doorstep –And Made It To International Headlines

The story of how simple an initiative can spread globally in a matter of few days proves just how contagious acts of kindness can be. 

An anonymous man in the Saudi Arabian city of Hail installed a refrigerator for the poor next to his house, giving them the opportunity to get food without begging. As a reminder of how simple helping is, the fridge stands in the middle of the street to receive food surpluses from other citizens.

The ‘charity fridge’ caught the eyes of international media after a leading Saudi cleric, Sheikh Mohammad Al Araifi, praised on his Twitter account “the Saudi man who was engaged in an indirect act of charity.” According to Saudi news portal Akhbar 24, the tweet was retweeted over 5,000 times and didn’t take long to reach regional bloggers and international media, such as the BBC and the Huffington Post.

With Ramadan starting this June 2014, many suggested extending the initiative as an environmental and charitable effort. “The idea should now be adopted and all large mosques in the country should place fridges to take and distribute food”, said twitter user Sniper, according to Gulf News. “This is an excellent idea for engaging in charity while avoiding food wastage which is very common here, especially in Ramadan”,  businessman Saleh Shamawi added.