The Zakat Foundation of America

(Kembojai, Gambia 8/25/2010) Zakat Foundation's Sadaqa Jariyah program encourages donors to contribute to the creation of services that bring continuous benefit to needy communities. This year, Zakat Foundation was able to assist the needy with the opening of a mosque in Kembojai Village in the western region of Brikana, Gambia. Gambia is the smallest country in Africa with a population of just under two million people, ninety-percent of whom are Muslim.

On July 23rd and 24th, members of the Kembojai community came, men, women and children together to celebrate the opening of Masjid Ar-Rahman. The villagers were very thankful to the donors whose generosity allowed for the building of the mosque in their village.

Before Zakat Foundation's construction of the new mosque, the villagers were performing their prayers in a mud brick structure that crumbled easily during the rainy season, leaving the community without a regular place of worship. For Friday prayers, the people of Kembojai would have to travel at least two miles to reach the closest mosque.

After receiving a land donation from one of the members of the community, Zakat Foundation went about the construction of a mosque made of cement and steel, large enough to accommodate the believers in the community.

Insha'Allah, Masjid Ar-Rahman will serve both as a mosque and a community center. Fourteen year old Abdul said that the building of the mosque in his village is important because he loves to encourage his friends to pray and read Quran with him. The presence of the mosque makes these activities much easier.

Fatu Chan, a widow with four children who lives in the village, said that going to the mosque in the neighboring village was very difficult and she is so grateful for the new mosque that she will continue to pray for the Zakat Foundation donors who donated it for as long as she is alive.

Zakat Foundation of America is a Chicago based non-profit relief and development organization which has catered to local and regional needs, as well as abroad to Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, since 2001. For more information and photos of our relief work, please contact us, call 708.233.0555, or visit www.zakat.org.