... an unfolding miracle...

Although there are no shortages of special events and heart rendering incidences that occur within the daily routine of Zainabiya, this year by far the biggest event has been the trip by the ZCSS team to India, and the impact it has had on the enthusiasm of the team and the sheer magic of actually seeing the fruits of their work in front of their eyes. When one is working from an office, one never actually grasps the scale of human tragedy that poverty and deprivation causes. It is only when one sees this with ones own eyes that it actually hits the heart... and the tears begin to flow. The tears also flow, when one actually sees the difference a scheme like the Zainabiya Child Sponsorship Scheme is making … but this time the tears are of gratitude to Allah (s.w.t) for having given one the opportunity to be a part of the movement that is actually making a difference... THE WORLD FEDERATION.

Usually only one or two workers from the ZCSS go to visit the schools in India, but this year with encouragement and sponsorship from private donors, eight members of the team could make this trip. I am extremely grateful to these donors for having had faith in the work of ZCSS, and I have no doubt that they will see the fruits of this trip for many years to come.

Our first port of call was Gujarat. This is where the scheme had originally started back in 1982, as there were children there in child labour and the poverty was rife. Now Gujarat has come a long way from those days, and although poverty is still present, the ignorance that compounds poverty is by far and large gone. Today Zainabiya is sponsoring over 3500 children in Gujarat alone and out of this there are roughly 350 graduates. Zainabiya is also running tuition classes as well as vocational training centres and where there was ignorance and desperation once, there are coaching classes and madressas now. We visited six towns in Gujarat, where ZCSS is active, and we had ample opportunities to; not only ask questions to the students to gauge the standard of education, but we also got opportunities to interact with them on a more relaxed and social level. I have to concede that they played better cricket than us! During the trip to Gujarat there were many occasions when I used to walk a little further from the schools, with the noise of children playing and learning in the background and think... I wonder, how many mothers must have prayed, and for how many years, to bring a scheme like Zainabiya to fruition!
 
Zainabiya has come a very long way in Gujarat and I pray to Allah (s.w.t) for peace in Gujarat and a quick end to the political tension that currently exists there, and for the safety of all our children and our educational institutions in Gujarat. Ameen.

After three days in Gujarat, we went to Bangalore. Zainabiya has done a lot of work in and around Bangalore especially in towns like Alipur. This is the town that was nearly destroyed by the hurricane in 1984. There was an enormous human tragedy in Alipur and surrounding villages like Kareempur and Potenhalle. On top of the natural disaster, the people of Alipur were extremely poor and there were almost no credible educational facilities available and therefore the children were largely illiterate. Zainabiya constructed a school in there in 1994. This was oversubscribed from the day it opened; therefore a second floor was constructed in 1996. This school has been so successful, that it ranks amongst the top school for that area, according to the records of Karnataka State Dept.

The demand for places in this school is so great that this year a third floor was added to this school. It was one of our pleasant duties during this trip in opening the third floor of this school. We spent a full day at the school, and had ample opportunity to talk to students as well as staff and the board of governors. The school was humming with intellectuality and knowledge and when one looked around at the town of Alipur which is very basic, one could not but marvel at the unfolding miracle that ZCSS actually is… If one were to close ones eyes and look at the school with the eyes of ones soul, one would see the glow of knowledge radiating from the walls of this school.

The town of Kareempur is about 20 miles from Alipur, but Kareempur has not yet had the advantages of the ZCSS School. It is not difficult to see the difference. Kareempur is still a very minimal and a very poor village and although there is a school being run in the local mosque, the amenities are far from adequate. During this trip, the other pleasant task we had was to perform the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of a Zainabiya school in Kareempur. This was probably the most memorable time for me personally. As Mohamed Alibhai was breaking the ground with the hoe, I could not help feeling that I was witnessing an event that will be a turning point in the history of Kareempur. The parents of the whole town came to the ceremony with hope in their hearts and tears in their eyes. They kept hugging us and crying out of gratitude, and we could not help but shed tears at their desperation. Not many words were spoken, but the eyes spoke and the hearts bonded. Only a parent can understand the despair of another parent and as all of us in the team are parents ourselves, our hearts could connect with theirs without any need for words.

Students at ZCSS as at December 2002

Mohamed Visram

Chairman ZCSS
Shawwal 1423 / December 2002