JEDDAH, 8 January 2007 -- The development of Muslim communities in non-Muslim countries is the focus of a four-day workshop organized by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB).
Representatives of leading Muslim NGOs from 15 countries are taking part in the workshop which was opened here yesterday by Dr. Muhammad Hassan Salem, acting director of IDB's Special Assistance and Scholarship Program Office (SASPO).
Salem said the IDB had, through its special assistance and scholarship programs, provided grants of over $250 million for the socio-economic development of Muslim communities in 60 non-member countries. He emphasized SASPO's readiness to provide assistance to well-planned projects beneficial to the community.
"Muslim communities must work hard to match other communities in making use of available resources in an efficient manner," he said.
Most of the participants in the workshop were in the Kingdom to perform Haj. "Since many responsible members of Muslim NGOs come for Haj each year, the IDB decided to utilize their presence in Saudi Arabia by bringing them together in a workshop-setting to exchange experiences, develop new ideas, create renewed commitments, sharpen skills and establish a global community development network," Salem said.
He highlighted IDB's efforts to boost the development of the Ummah during the past 32 years by financing a large number of welfare and infrastructure projects. He also referred to the growing popularity of Islamic banking as leading conventional banks such as HSBC and Citibank have opened Islamic banking departments.
The workshop was aimed at educating participants how community development ideas could be institutionalized for sustainable benefit to the needy and how education plays a key role in the socio-economic development process. It will also discuss problems facing Muslim NGOs in order to suggest viable solutions. Participants will learn how to prepare, appraise, implement, monitor and evaluate IDB-financed special assistance projects.
NGOs attending the workshop include those from Canada, India, Mauritius, Nigeria, New Zealand, Somalia and Ethiopia. These organizations offer a variety of services to the community in the fields of education, poverty alleviation, community empowerment, relief work, manpower training and Islamic propagation.
A team of experts from the Saudi-German Hospitals Group including Professor Nanda Gopal, director of Saudi Entrepreneurship Development Institute (SEDI), gave presentations on the company's community development initiatives such as SEDI, Family Business Academy, Charity Blood Bank, Saudi-German Institute for Nursing & Allied Health Sciences and Abdul Jaleel Batterjee Fund.
Gopal urged NGOs to make their communities self-reliant. "If you give a man a fish a day you feed him for the day but if you teach him how to fish you feed him for life," he explained.
"This is a very useful workshop as it focuses on human development and trains community leaders in how to make optimum use of their resources," said Abdul Hameed Bala Abubakar, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Health in the Nigerian state of Kaduna.
Daud Azimullah of the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand said his organization would certainly benefit from the workshop in terms of receiving new ideas and exchange of experiments by participants.
Adel Sindi, program officer at the Scholarship Program Office, welcomed the guests and Mamoon Al-Azami, community development specialist at SASPO, gave a brief description of what the workshop is about.
By P.K. Abdul Ghafour
© Arab News 2007
