My Faith My Voice PSA

CAIR 'We Have More in Common than We Think' PSA, Interfaith (30-Second)

The African American Islamic Institute: EDUCATION

The African American Islamic Institute: EDUCATION: "The United Nations has identified Universal Education as one of its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). AAII considers Universal Education..."

PROMOTION OF PEACE

AAII demonstrates a deep commitment to the promotion of peace through its on-going work to advance inter-religious understanding and respect and the development of peacebuilding approaches to conflict resolution. A significant aspect of AAII’s leadership is the promotion of Islam from a Sufi perspective as a peaceful alternative to the spread of radical ideologies that generate international terrorism.

AAII has been in the forefront of efforts to promote inter-religious harmony between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria and other countries in which conflict has erupted among followers of these religious traditions. Peacebuilding strategies include:

• elder and youth dialogs, respectively, that bring Christians and Muslims together to engage in focused discussions;
• involving NGOs in the formation of councils for inter-religious unity and developing their boards of directors from among respected Muslim and Christian leaders;
• encouraging the development of school curricula and multi-media inter-religious educational materials;
• the organization of conferences that facilitate the establishment of standing committees that function on an on-going basis after the conferences have been adjourned.

As part of AAII’s efforts to represent a Sufi interpretation of humankind’s relationship to God and responsibility to one another, AAII’s Founder and Chairman, organized and led anti-terrorism conferences in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and in Kumasi, Ghana. In a concerted effort to reach as many people as possible with his message of peace, AAII’s Founder and Chairman held a press conference in Accra, Ghana on “ Islam and Terriorism” that was attended by forty-eight media outlets.

Representing the African continent, AAII’s Founder and Chairman participated as a major speaker in the World Conference of Religions for Peace, held in Madrid, Spain in May, 2006. Religious and community leaders from thirty nations worldwide and the spiritual paths of Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Catholicism, Islam and Indigenous committed themselves to working together to address the global problem of violence against children. The elimination of economic and sexual exploitation of children and their use in combat, particularly in Africa, constitutes an essential aspect of working for peace in the world.

AAII’s Founder and Chairman represented Islam, Senegal, the Network of African Islamic Organizations for Population and Development and AAII at the “Peace and Harmony Conference” held in Tonsberg, Norway in June, 2008. His work toward inter-religious harmony and peaceful relations between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria was particularly relevant and valuable to this effort to address the urgent need for mutual respect for all religions and ethnicities as Norway accommodates large numbers of Muslim immigrants from Africa and elsewhere.

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ALLEVIATION OF HUNGER AND POVERTY

AAII recognizes that poverty is the leading cause of death as a result of a lack of clean drinking water, adequate nutrition and basic health. AAII has developed the following initiatives to address the needs of the rural poor in the Kaolack Region of Senegal.

• AAII’s Maida Food Distribution Network provides rice, millet, sugar and powdered milk to families throughout the region whose limited resources put them at risk for prolonged hunger.
• AAII’s Badr Well Digging Project increases access to clean drinking water in rural communities through the strategic digging of wells.
• AAII’s Kossi-Atlanta Water Project was established in 1996 to distribute potable water to 15 villages in rural Senegal. A significant aspect of the Project informs communities about the procedures and benefits of maintaining safe water supplies. The Project works in conjunction with AAII’s Badr Well Digging Project to dig new wells in other rural communities.

Poverty impacts every aspect of people’s lives, to include access to adequate housing, education, and health care. In an effort to develop the capability of thousands of rural families living in extreme poverty to improve their quality of life, AAII initiated the Kossi Atlanta Rural Development Project. To ease the impact of inadequate housing, poor living conditions and inefficient service delivery systems, the Project focuses on:

• Low Cost Housing Development
• Land and Infrastructure Development
• Education and Adult Literacy
• Primary and Reproductive Health Care
• Agricultural Development as a Source of Food and Income
• Micro Credit Opportunities

Like all of AAII’s programs and projects, the Kossi- Atlanta Rural Development Project is designed with an emphasis on benefits to women and children and has the potential of serving as a model for replication throughout West Africa. To date, AAII has established a Mosque, Qur’anic School and a Shifa-al-Asqam Satellite Clinic and sustainable clean water initiatives in Kossi-Atlanta, Senegal. AAII is seeking organizations, corporations and individuals to partner with us in the development of affordable housing, sustainable farms and other income producing activities through the provision of funding, expertise and technical assistance. For additional information and proposal guidelines, please contact us.

PROTECTION OF CHILDREN

AAII’s demonstrated commitment to the protection and well being of children is evident in all of its programs and projects, whether in the area of education, health care, poverty alleviation or human rights. AAII’s work with UNICEF is a testimony to its on-going contribution of human and other resources to further collaborative efforts to protect children from hunger and thirst, sickness and neglect, physical and sexual violence, abuses of child labor and the violence of using children as soldiers. Following are examples of AAII’s work for the protection of children:

FATIMATA ZAHRA ORPHAN CARE PROGRAM
This program cares for children whose parents have died or have left them due to extreme poverty that has rendered them unable to feed and care for them. AAII provides orphaned children with food, shelter, clothing, medical care and education. Most of the children have gone without proper nutrition or medical care in the past and require special nutritional and medical support.

UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN’S ASSEMBLY
AAII delegates, including youth, participated in the UN Special Session on Children to represent the needs and concerns of children living in sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, adequate food and water, access to health care and immunizations, the impact of AIDS on the African child, the need for universal education and the role of child labor in the economy.

UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY GENERAL’S STUDY ON VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN, REGIONAL CONSULTATION, WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA
AAII’s Founder and Chairman participated as a featured speaker in the U.N. Secretary General’s Study on Violence Against Children, Regional Constultation, West and Central Africa held in Bamako, Mali in 2005. In his remarks at the conclusion of this gathering, the Secretary General quoted Shaykh Hassan Ali Cisse’s speech, which examined Islamic, Christian and traditional African religious principles regarding children. Significantly, the recommendation of AAII’s Founder and Chairman that the United Nations Food Programme (UNFP) expand its Canteen program for school children to include children in Qur’anic schools was included in the final document that was generated for distribution.

In recognition of AAII’s work on behalf of children, AAII’s Founder and Chairman has been nominated for the 2009 World Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child, and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Senegal has appointed him Ambassador of Good Will for the Promotion of Child Survival and Maternal Breastfeeding.

In 2008, as part of its commitment to children, AAII entered into a strategic partnership with Children’s Chance, Inc., a U.S. based organization that brings children with special medical needs from other parts of the world to the United States for pro bono medical care.  In response to the many requests for medical intervention for African children, AAII is expanding its roster of physicians, medical institutions and hosting organizations, as well as developing resources to bring African children and their accompanying parent to the U.S. for specialty care not available in their home countries.

EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN

AAII’s unwavering commitment to the advancement of the status of women in Africa has informed all of AAII’s education and literacy, health care, poverty alleviation and human rights initiatives.AAII’s Shifa-al-Asqam Socio-Medical Center’s primary and reproductive health care initiatives have had a measurable impact on the lives of women. AAII’s services provide women with access to pre-natal care that has significantly reduced maternal mortality, family planning services that enable them to space their pregnancies, understanding of the benefits of breast feeding to themselves and their children and the reduction of the death of their children from preventable diseases. An increase in live births and child survival reduce the number of pregnancies required to have a family with several children, thereby reducing pregnancy-related death among women.

AAII’s leadership in other health-related issues that adversely affect the lives of women in Africa include initiatives that address both Female Genital Mutiliation (FGM) and Vesicovaginal Fistula (VVF). AAII’s Female Genital Prevention Initiative educates communities about the health and human rights issues surrounding the cultural practice of female genital mutilation. This has resulted in legislation prohibiting the practice in Senegal. AAII’s leadership in collaboration with UNFPA, Americares and the Government of Zamfara State, Nigeria, initiated the establishment of a Vesicovaginal Fistula(VVF) hospital in Gafau, Nigeria to care for girls and women afflicted with this debilitating and humiliating condition.

AAII’s Education Program’s initiatives, including health, education and adult literacy projects, have focused on women and girls. In a society that traditionally educates its boys to the exclusion of girls, AAII’s position that there is no legitimate reason for excluding women and girls from Islamic or academic educational opportunities rests on the Islamic directive to seek knowledge.AAII’s collaborations and staunch advocacy for the education of the girl child and adult literacy have made significant contributions to the advancement of the status of women. AAII’s ongoing work to promote literacy among women and girls was recognized by the World Association of NGOs (WANGO) with its 2002 Education Award presented in Washingon, D.C.

The traditional role of women in Africa includes the back-breaking task of carrying water over long distances. Through AAII’s Badr Well Digging Project and the Kossi-Atlanta Water Project, the work of women in rural areas has been significantly reduced.

Economic development is a key factor for the empowerment of women in society. AAII’s Hazrat Zainab Women’s Collective offers women training in textile design and manufacturing, and individual and collective business development. AAII collaborates with and actively supports the design and implementation of microcredit projects for women that incorporate health education and business practices as integral parts of the training provided.

All of AAII’s work with the UNFPA is undertaken for the advancement of the status of women. AAII’s Founder and Chairman organized the Network of African Islamic Organizations for Population and Development that met in Abuja, Nigeria in 2005. Shaykh Hassan Ali Cisse’s address at this historic gathering of Islamic leaders from twenty three nations, and the Abuja Declaration that it generated, clearly set forth the significance of the empowerment of women to the achievement of sustainable development in Africa.