Over the years, Zakat Foundation of America has supported education in different ways and in different countries.
The impact of Islamic charity on education
For more than two decades, Zakat Foundation of America has sponsored tuition and fees for Afghan girls along with their teachers and school staff. Similarly, it has sponsored orphanage schools in Bangladesh and Nepal, and secondary schools in Ghana.
For Syrian refugees in Turkey, it sent children and young adults to school entirely for free, even covering students’ transportation to and from school. It housed orphaned Syrian refugees with their guardians and provided both Turkish language and vocational classes for the guardians. It sent young adults to Zahraa University, exclusively run by and for Syrian refugees, to continue their war-disrupted education.
In Pakistan, it turned on the lights — and the fans — for rural students through solar energy. The Solar on Schools program helped children focus in class rather than worrying about the 85-degree-Fahrenheit heat in classrooms of 150 students.
In the Dominican Republic, Zakat Foundation of America helps teach English to eager learners. Further north, it also supports STEAM educational programs among Chicago’s impoverished children, while annually giving students backpacks full of school supplies.
More recently, Zakat Foundation of America has established through Islamic charity a new education operation: Zakat Foundation Institute. The institute provides hands-on training and thought leadership to serve Muslim charitable work by offering advanced degrees in humanitarian and development studies. Furthermore, the institute offers specialized coursework with the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy to students and professionals with a proven commitment of service to the Muslim charitable sector. This is your Islamic charity in action.
Never-ending education
This year, Zakat Foundation of America was honored to offer $25,000 in scholarships to those most dedicated to community service. Among the eligibility requirements, applicants must have volunteered a minimum of 30 hours with Zakat Foundation of America in the past 12 months. This helps teach students what Islamic charity means: giving back — in whatever form they can.
Zakat Foundation of America continuously offers traditional and innovative programs to support education, at home and abroad. Each of its programs are meant to provide long-term skills and independence so its beneficiaries may eventually give back to their communities, just as its scholarship applicants do.