The Muslim community of Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts will host a Haiti fundraiser this Saturday at the Islamic School of Rhode Island located at 840 Providence St. in West Warwick.

Farah Habib, one of the organizers of the fundraiser, hopes the event will raise $500 to $1,000, or perhaps even $1,500 if it doesn’t snow. The money raised will be sent to Haiti through Islamic Relief, an organization that helps disaster victims around the world.

The fundraiser will be held in the Islamic School gym from 2 to 5 p.m. Habib said she chose the Islamic school because they agreed to donate the use of the gym. Other venues were charging as much as $200.

“The fundraiser idea started with our children asking lots of questions,” said Uzma Azma of Warwick, another fundraiser organizer.

She explained further.

“The whole world helped with the earthquake in Pakistan so now it’s our turn to help”

Habib explained that the fundraiser also sends a message showing Muslims are sending money for a humanitarian crisis.

The fundraiser will have a gift shop that features cultural items, a used book fair, ethnic foods and Habib says, “an opportunity to get your hands painted with intricate Henna designs.” According to Azma, members of the community will cook all the food sold at the fundraiser. She also said that around 100 members of the community have helped organize the event.

The book fair was organized by children of the Muslim community.

Mostafa Mahboob, communications manager for Islamic Relief, said that within 10 days of the earthquake the organization had setup a camp that put 1,000 displaced Haitians into 13 by 13 square foot tents complete with kitchen sets and hygiene kits.

“The next morning after the earthquake, we [Islamic Relief] set an appeal of $1 million and within the next couple of days we raised it to $2.5 million,” he said. Islamic Relief has raised $1.7 million of that target and he said that the appeal could be raised in the near future.

The organization has already reached 1,000 people with food and water and has housed 1,200 with tents. Mahboob said that in the next few days they plan to reach 5,000 more with food and water and 1,000 more families with tents (which means 5,000 to 6,000 people).

“We also plan to setup a clinic and a school in the camp.”

The total cost of the clinic and school was not available, but he said that it the cost was included in the $2.5 million appeal.

The organization has between seven and ten international staff in Haiti at any one time and they’ve also started hiring a local staff to support their relief efforts.