Abdul-Jalil and Belal Esa receive Proclamation Honoring them for Muslim American Achievment in Resolution from the Mayor of the City of Albany

As Salaamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu wa Jazzak Allah Khair Khayrun,

We, the Aaron & Margaret Wallace Foundation (AMWF), pray Allah (SWT) you and the Families are well, ALL of your health is robust, you’re making GREAT progress in your Deen, your businesses are thriving, that everything will be perfect in your life and you ALL stay in Allah’s Love, Grace, Guidance and Mercy, iA, Amen!

We, the Aaron & Margaret Wallace Foundation (AMWF), and Abdul-Jalil, have received another Proclamation for Muslim American’s with a Resolution Honoring us from the Mayor of the City of Albany, the City Council and from the Albany Unified School District Board of Supervisors, Albany, CA, during their Council meeting September 5, 2023. We received this Honor with the family of Belal Salih Esa whom was murdered in 2022.

“WHEREAS, the Aaron and Margaret Wallace Foundation (AMWF), founded in 1957 provides basic necessities to over 30,000 individuals per month, including hot meals, fresh produce, toys, books and more. Brother Abdul-Jalil al-Hakim and Brother Belal Salih Esa were instrumental in supporting the Albany community, providing food, hygiene supplies, and hot meals. Belal, who served not just the Albany community but also the Oakland Islamic Center and the Jummah Free Farmers Market dedicated his life to service and uplifting his community and beyond. On September 19, 2022 Belal lost his life to senseless gun violence but his legacy to support the underserved community lives on through AMWF, his family and loved ones; and”

The Aaron & Margaret Wallace Foundation (AMWF), since 1957, is a public services organization based on GIVING AND SHARING, is non-denominational, Multi-Cultural, 100% volunteer financed and operated relief organization that serves over 30,000 people a month, provides FREE charitable assistance to the general public with food, medicine, clothing, educational and employment opportunities, mental and physical health referrals, legal aid, shelter and other necessities to the economically, mentally, and physically challenged; the poor and needy; the undereducated and undeserved; people living with sever illness including symptomatic HIV and AIDS; people living substance abuse; seniors 55 years and older; prenatal women; at risk youth; and homebound people living with serious illness; homeless, unhoused; immigrants and refugees; different-abled shut-in residents; and individuals, children, families, and organizations who lack these essentials for any reason. We provide private school and college admissions educational opportunities; assists with referrals for job training and placement; rental assistance; social services assistance; homelessness assistance; mental and physical health assistance; medical assistance and legal aid assistance referrals FREE for ANYONE whom has the need.

The Aaron & Margaret Wallace Foundation (AMWF), from our Oakland base, serves a 100 mile radius to San Francisco, to Sacramento, to Stockton, to San Jose and back covering all points in between.

AMWF has been heavily involved in and has taken the lead the servicing and protecting the most vulnerable of these homeless, unhoused communities since the 1970’s that as a result of COVID-19, now the government needs to address the spread of this Deadly agent of the virus. We provide direct, meaningful and essential sustenance extending these various services and programs to those most in need. Providing food IS AN ESSENTIAL service, so we are used for that purpose, we added new food resource donors, we MUST be out to serve and our work has TRIPLED!

For many YEARS prior to Covid, and since, we have provided FREE groceries, clothing, shoes, hygiene kits, sleeping bags, blankets, medicine, and hot chef’s prepared gourmet meals to the homeless and homeless encampments and habitations of ALL kinds, from the streets to parks, from trees and bushes to alleys, from corners to ditches, from hand built shanties to tents under freeway overpasses!

We provide FREE groceries, bagged and hot chef’s prepared gourmet meals, plus the above, to the Safe Parking Programs, among others, at local senior and community centers, and faith based organizations in an effort to provide families and/or individuals who have been displaced and are temporarily homeless, living in their vehicles and need a safe place to park and sleep overnight, with restrooms and an attendant present throughout the night at all of the locations.

We also provide food to those that had previously obtained necessary items at their Senior Center. But now that they’re closed, are vital to the wellness of the community and senior population with our Food Bank program and Free Farmers Market Food Give-Aways.

One Blessing of the pandemic is we have added MORE retail grocery stores pick ups and arranged several other groups programs with the young adults and kids to participate in servicing the poor, homeless, and senior shut-in’s, since they were out of school and needed something to do!! This will stick with them for LIFE!

We also annually hand out over 400 Eid gifts/toys to the youth twice a year for Eid and regularly during our weekly Jumaah Free Farmers Market Food Giveaways.

We provide direct, meaningful and essential sustenance extending these various services and programs to those most in need to MORE Muslims in America, per Allah (SWT), then ALL the Islamic charity groups COMBINED in the United States including Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle of North America ICNA, Islamic Society of North America ISNA, Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), Muslim American Society (MAS), Muslim Community Association, MCA-SFBA, American Muslim Alliance (AMA), Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP), Muslim American Leadership Alliance (MALA), the Muslim Reform Movement (MRM), Muslims Facing Tomorrow (MFT), the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD), The Mosque Cares, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA), Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA), Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), American Muslim Alliance (AMA), The Mosque Foundation, American Muslim Task Force (AMTF), American Muslims for Civic Engagement (AMCE), The North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), the Muslim Students Association (MSA), United Muslim Americans Association (UMAA), United Muslims of America (UMA), the UMMA, Inner-City Muslim Action Network, Muslim Advocates, Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD), United States Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), MuslimARC, and Zaytuna College!!

Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim (بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ)

“In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful”

INNA LILLAHI WA IN ALLAH E RAJIOON

“Indeed, to Allah we belong and to Allah we shall return.”

إِنَّا لِلَّٰهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ

Surveillance video from the store and restaurant that were involved, shows a white vehicle, possibly a Prius, pulling up and someone started shooting into the store and restaurant. Police are reviewing that footage, but did not confirm any suspect vehicle information.

Belal was on the Board of Directors of the Oakland Islamic Center and his family operated several businesses and performed Charity with the Aaron & Margaret Wallace Foundation (AMWF) Jumaah Free Farmers Markets in the African and Middle Eastern Muslim communities and at several Eat Bay Masajids on Jumaah Friday Kuthbah. Belal, Ethiopian by birth, worked tirelessly to better the African and Muslim communities in the Bay Area, where he singularly fed thousands in 9 Free Food Ministries each week with our AMWF Free Food Program, AHDL!

He is survived by his wife Mimi, sons Dawude- graduated from U. C. Berkeley with a triple major, Omar- also graduated from U. C. Berkeley, Salih- 15 year old entrepreneur at the top of his class entering high school, and daughter Rewda- the smartest of them all!

We couldn’t have done ANYTHING without your support, AHDL!! May ALLAH accept your good deeds and fasts, and grant you and your families duas, Salaahs, forgiveness and REWARD YOU and your Families with Jannatul Firdaus in paradise directly under his throne, iA! Shukran wa Jazzak Allah Khair Khayrun

    YOU WILL NEVER KNOW ALL THE BATTLES HE/WE HAVE HAD TO FIGHT WITH THE RACISM, BIGOTRY, ISLAMOPHOBIA, XENOPHOBIA, AND PURE HATE THAT WE ENCOUNTER BEING THE ONLY AFRICAN-AMERICAN, MUSLIM FOOD BANK! I will address that at a later
date.

THEY/WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!!

    At this time we are asking YOU to be available to support our communities very lifelines!
    Please call/text me at 510-394-4501, AMWF at 510-394-4101, email at: amwf1234@gmail.com; FB: Aaron & Margaret Wallace Foundation FaceBook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/amwfnd/
Aaron & Margaret Wallace Foundation Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/amwfnd/
    You can contact and support the AARON & MARGARET WALLACE FOUNDATION, (AMWF) at: https://amwftrust.org, amwf1234@gmail.com
    You can make your check payable to: AARON & MARGARET WALLACE FOUNDATION (AMWF), 4200 Park Blvd., Ste. #One16, Oakland, CA 94602; you can donate with Paypal here:
https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=3RWDLJCEVHWT6 or Paypal with email to: amwft@amwftrust.org
    May ALLAH  REWARD YOU and your Families with Jannatul Firdaus in paradise directly under his throne, iA! 
    Shukran wa JZK,
 
Abdul Jalil