My Personal Struggle

Islam for me is a beautiful religion and way of life and one of the strongest values that I draw from Islam is compassion. This value is what inspires me the most and I take this value with me in all that I do.

I work to alleviate poverty and Islam is what inspires me to do this. Allah says in the Quran in Chapter 5 verse 32, ‘He who saves a single life, it is as if he has saved all of mankind.’ This is a very important verse for me in that God is telling us in all His wisdom the value of saving a single life and that is not a Muslim life but A LIFE regardless of race, gender or religion. To save the life of a Christian, Jew, Hindu or Sikh is just as important as saving a Muslim life.

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More Than Just Malaria…

Staring at Malaria right in the face

We came to Africa with a goal and that goal was to speak to the communities out here, to hear their stories and to learn about the effects of Malaria. Being here for a week now we understand that the goal is much bigger then what we first anticipated and that malaria is just a smaller part of the bigger picture.

You see the Faiths Act Fellows program and what we are doing here is very unique and pioneering in many ways and if successful I whole heartedly believe that we truly change the world for the better.

Think about the impacts faith based NGOs have both on a grass root level in fundraising, capacity building and raising awareness and then in the field by understanding the cultures and religious observances of the community. From my experiences in working with Muslim faith based NGOs in disaster response situations in Muslim lands such as the Pakistan earthquake and Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh it was these organizations that were the most effective. It is the faith of these organizations that really infuses the value of giving and compassion from people to the people.

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The Development Struggle

Photo Curtosey of Tim Brauhn www.timbrauhn.com

We know humanity has failed; has the humanitarian ‘industry’ also failed?

Today I attended Catholic Mass in Ifakara, south central Tanzania. The congregation was huge and the church was full with many at standing at the back of the hall for the entire 2 hour service. I noted how many young, enthusiastic and vibrant people attended the mass in contrast to the services I have attended at home in London. Young people made up a huge portion of the congregation; is this because of the level of community spirit that exists? The shear poverty that people are in that means church is the only hope? Or is it that most of the population don’t make it to be old enough to be considered old? Probably it is all three.

We attended mass today as a group of 10 from all different faiths – Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Sikh and Theists; our message a simple yet complicated one. People of different faiths working together for positive social action. This could be anything from campaigning on climate change, promoting Fair Trade or doing something about the global fight on poverty. For us it is trying to achieve the Millennium Development Goals with special attention to the eradication of deaths caused due to Malaria.

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