DOHA: Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Foundation for Humanitarian Services (RAF) has helped many Qatari citizens facing default on loan repayments to the tune of about QR6m.
The initiative came under the campaign “Khairana Le Ahlina” (our goodness for our people) launched by RAF to release loan defaulters from jail. The debt totaled QR5,964,879.
RAF officials approached the lenders, including banks, companies and individuals, and convinced them to reduce a portion of the amount with an assurance of the repayment of the remaining amount. As a result, about QR2m was waived.
The committee concerned at the RAF paid QR3,976,036, of which some 50 percent, more than QR1.9m, was contributed by philanthropists as donations.
“Six types of people benefitted from the largesse of RAF, said Husain Aman Al Ali, Supervisor of the campaign.
“The committee for rescuing the loan defaulters conducted a study on the cases coming before the committee seeking help. Priority was given to the people serving jail sentence for defaulting on repaying loan, followed by those issued verdict against them for jail in same cases. Defendants in loan default cases and those being threatened to cases for not repaying their loans were also helped”, said Al Ali.
“I have been working for several years in this field, so I can say that people did not fail to repay loans because of only low income. Lack of proper knowledge about the management of projects was found to be the reason behind the most cases of load defaulting,” said Al Ali. In some cases, the loan defaulters were cheated because of a lack of awareness. Some of them did not conduct feasibility studies before making investments, so they faced huge losses.
The committee has taken into consideration some more points in approving the requests seeking repayments and preferred those having families to single loan defaulters. The women applicants were also given priority.
The committee worked hard in negotiating with lenders to drop some amounts, especially in the cases of big loans. Most of the lenders cooperated with negotiators and reduced a portion of the loan, said a release.
The committee still has dozens of requests waiting for financial help from the donors.
The Peninsula
