A Month Of Blessings: Sharing The Experience Of Ramadan With Your Teams
‘Captify Voices’ spotlights employees from across the business as they reflect on their experiences, educate and inspire action around Diversity and Inclusion, particularly around historical and religious holidays.
In the second release of the series, Aisha Malik, Captify’s Process Excellence and Enablement Lead reflects on how Captify is participating in Ramadan and how people can learn about Ramadan by taking part in fasting.
Like all Muslims around the world, I always look forward to the month of Ramadan as the holiest month of the year. It’s a time for me to reflect on myself and on my faith, where I feel much closer to Allah. I always feel overcome with emotions during this time; going through the experience of fasting, thinking of others who are less fortunate than myself, and feeling truly blessed for everything that I have in this world.
What is Ramadan?
- One of the Five Pillars of Islam and the 9th month of the Islamic calendar
- Muslims around the world fast for 29 or 30 days (depending on the sighting of the new moon)
- Fasting takes place between dawn to dusk, where a pre-dawn meal is eaten and then, at dusk, families will break their fasts together
- Not only do Muslims refrain from food and drink, but also smoking, sexual relations, and any inappropriate behaviour. Fasting is obligatory for all adult Muslims, however, those who are pregnant, breastfeeding, menstruating, unwell, taking medication, or of old age, are exempt
- During this month, we give Zakat (obligatory charity) to those less fortunate than us
- You can also discover more about Ramadan with this guide here
How Captify is supporting Ramadan:
Since joining Captify, this will be the 10th Ramadan that I’ll be taking part in and the 28th in my life. I feel truly blessed and fortunate to be surrounded by considerate colleagues and friends, who have continuously supported me and so many others throughout the month of Ramadan each and every year.
To show support for those who are fasting this month and as a way to share the experience together, Captify welcomed all employees to join in and fast for a day. Over 20 Captifyers from across the globe participated this year, and a few of them shared their experiences:
- “The overall experience really makes you appreciate the food and drink we have readily available and the lifestyle we live in, not having to walk for miles just to get freshwater or through days without any food”—Priya Hirani, Business Insights Director
- “It really does make you appreciate food more, as well as how others may be feeling during fasting days”—Paige Berrecloth, Personal Assistant
- “I felt like I had a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day…Overall, I really enjoyed the day and the experience”—Malachi Osborne, Campaign Strategy Manager
If you’ve never experienced fasting, why not give it a try? We’ve put together this handy guide for experiencing a day of Ramadan.
The little things you can do to support colleagues or teams that are fasting:
- Be Mindful: of eating or drinking in front of a person who is fasting, especially on video calls
- Be flexible:
- with working hours—starting a little later in the day can really help those who are fasting
- with meetings—the afternoons can be more difficult to focus, so if possible, try to schedule meetings for mornings.
- Encourage breaks: away from the screen—short walks and breaks go a long way and will help foster greater concentration
- Check-in with your colleagues and teams—be sure to drop them a note during the day
Ramadan Mubarak from Captify!
