Peace All,
Unless you've been asleep this past week you have heard about the tragic fire in the Bronx that took the life of 10 people.Now,you know how we do here at Peace Denim Co. So I ask all of you get out your checkbooks and help out the families in thier time of need..NOW.I'm writing a company check myself this Friday,so I ask all of you to read below in case you didn't know.
How You Can Help
The Daily News is contributing $5,000 to start
a fund to help the victims of the Bronx fire.
If you want to help, send donations to:
Mali Family Fund
P.O. Box 3305
New York, NY 10116
The News will forward your contributions to the families.
tel-ghobashy@nydailynews.com
The African Service Center, located at 429 West 127th St., 2d Flr) is a community organization which assists African immigrants in New York City.
The center says people wanting to help the families affected by this fire can call:
African Service Committee
Phone: 212-222-3882
"Bronx Fire Relief Fund."
Magassa and Soumarie Family Fund
c/o Islamic Cultural Center
371 E 166th St.
Bronx, NY 10456
718-293-5323
Fax 718-992-8537
Donations For Fire Victims
Higher Counsel of Malians, USA
38 West 32nd Street
New York, NY 10001
Adopt-A-Friend Inc.
2008 Westchester Avenue
Bronx, NY 10462
The eight hearses pulled up slowly, carrying a weight far more significant than the 10 plain coffins inside.
One by one, the coffins were lifted into the Islamic Cultural Center, disappearing from view of the thousands who gathered on E.166th St. in the Bronx to pay their respects.
As the last of the victims was hoisted from the hearses, cries of "Allah akbar," or "God is great," filled the air, quickly followed by plaintive sobs.
"Let us pray this never happens again," Mayor Bloomberg said as women wailed in grief and grown men broke down and cried.
New York City had been bracing for the wrenching farewell since last Wednesday, when a fire - sparked by a space heater - devoured a Bronx rowhouse near Yankee Stadium and decimated two immigrant families from the struggling West African nation of Mali.
Five children of Moussa Magassa, ranging in age from 1 through 11, were killed by the fire. Mamadou Soumare lost his wife, Mariam, and four of their children.
The youngest victims - 6-month-old boy and girl twins Sise and Harouma Soumare - were in coffins made of particle board, the physical burden so light that they could be carried by just two men.
So many people came for the funeral that mosque workers at the Islamic Cultural Center rolled out blue tarps and set up loudspeakers across two city blocks so African Muslims and hundreds more non-Muslims could pray. They sang "Amazing Grace" and lit candles for the dead.
"We just wanted to let them know the community stands with them and we feel their pain," said Carmen Saez, a neighbor of the Magassa and Soumare families.
Inside the sanctuary, the heartbroken fathers accepted condolences from Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and other elected officials as well as Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
"Their eyes were all moist," said family friend Ben Fofana, 57, of the Bronx. "You could hardly look at them."
Before the formal funeral service began, speakers as disparate as Bloomberg and a young playmate of the dead children addressed the mourners.
Amal Ahmed, 11, urged everyone to trust in God. "Allah takes care of every situation in his infinite wisdom," she said.
Then Imam Mustapha Senghor of the African Council of Islamic Elders took his turn, acknowledging the presence of Christian and Jewish religious leaders.
"There's a commonality in the human race among all faiths, and that is we will all go back to our Creator," he said. "This alone makes us all brothers and sisters."
Senghor also appealed to the elected officials on behalf of Soumare for help so that he could be reunited with his three surviving children, who are 4, 6 and 7, and now live in Mali.
"I wish to have my children with me," Soumare told a Daily News reporter.
The family already has received nearly $200,000 in donations from generous New Yorkers, and Yankees owner George Steinbrenner picked up the tab for the funeral. A Long Island contractor has offered to rebuild the fire-damaged house on Woodycrest Ave. free. And Air France has offered to help Soumare fly his dead wife and children to Mali for burial.
But because Soumare's immigration status is unclear, Rep. Jose Serrano (D-South Bronx) said he has petitioned "for a humanitarian visa so he will be allowed to return."
"I bet if you ask anybody in New York whether this man should be allowed to take the bodies to Mali and come back, the answer would be a resounding yes," Serrano said.
After the brief funeral service, the hearses bearing Soumare's wife and children left for a Harlem funeral home while the other hearses headed west across the Hudson River for a Muslim cemetery in New Jersey. Soumare and Magassa and hundreds of mourners followed in two buses.
Five freshly dug graves awaited them when they arrived. A few minutes later the hearses drove up and the men hoisted the coffins in the air and carried them to the graves.
Standing amid his friends, a visibly distraught Magassa said a few words of farewell that were carried off by a gentle breeze that spoke of spring.
"May Allah forgive them, may Allah grant them paradise," said the imam who had accompanied the funeral party.
Then, as the women stood in the back by a stand of pine trees, the coffins were lowered into the ground. Using shovels and their bare hands, the men pushed the earth into the graves of Magassa's children.
Magassa watched as the simple granite slabs bearing the names of the dead in English and Arabic were laid over the graves.
As the sun began to set, he turned to his friend Soumare, and the two dads walked slowly to the buses for the ride back to New York.
Please Help
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