About one international mission for doing good deeds and how students from RS – Momchilgrad ranked among the good-doers

 “And give good tidings to those who believe and do righteous deeds that they will have gardens [in Paradise] beneath which rivers flow!...”

 (Holy Qur’an, surah Baqarah:25)

The past month of February, 2019 was different and special for a dozens of students from Religious School – Momchilgrad. A month full of meaning, activism, union and…doing good deeds. A month of a growth, satisfaction and accumulated ambitions.

The story ofBelieve and Do Good campaign

In February this year students from the Religious School in Momchilgrad officially took part in the initiative Believe and Do Good, which is launched and already very popular in the United Kingdom, but has gaining increasingly international dimension.

This is the campaign created by FOSIS (Federation of Student Islamic Societies) – the biggest student Muslim organization in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1963 and the number of its members nowadays reaches 90 000.

Over the years to nowadays this Muslim student organization develops as “the voice of the Muslim youth” in the United Kingdom.

The campaign Believe and Do Good is just one of the numerous events of the organization. The initiative is held every year in February and is aimed at the practical development of Islam in youth.

At many places in the Holy Qur’an are mentioned those who “believe and do good deeds” for a reason. In it participate mostly Islamic student communities, but the initiative is open to everyone regardless of age, religion, etc.

Believe and Do Good campaign is aimed at doing good deeds in four fields. They include feeding homeless and needy people, cleaning public areas, blood donation (only for those who has reached the age of majority) and whatever creative good deed (what the young people choose).

The initiative is interesting and non-traditional also with promoting and developing not only different social activities, but also entirely spiritual ones – for example starting of “Fajr Gang” – friendly groups of young people who organize themselves every morning to perform the morning prayer together at the mosque.

About the way of one idea– The initiative Believe and Do Good from England to Momchilgrad

It is a fact that in the West the Muslims are quite active in many regards and they have many organizations, associations, Islamic and cultural centers, etc., where various events, campaigns and initiatives for the welfare of the society take place.

But how such an initiative reached to Bulgaria and “infected” with doing good deeds the students from RS – Momchilgrad?

Behind the idea for one good and beneficial English initiative to reach the circles of the Islamic youths in our country are several young men from Bulgaria. One of them is Omar Abu Kalbayn – a student of Bulgarian origin who during the recent years has studied and lived in the UK. He himself is a passionate volunteer and activist, he is a member of various associations and organizations, a founder and a leader of a scout group of 50 members, etc. 

Omar, together with his friends Abdullah Terzi and Neyzi Karachobanov, who also lived in the West, decided that they have what to gain from the work with the Muslim youth communities in Europe. They decided that they want to be somehow useful for their peers in their homeland and to apply the European experience in Bulgaria.

“It happened so that every time when I met an active Muslim young person in England, it turned out that he is FOSIS member. This provoked me and I decided to visit their annual conference and since then, already a year, I am officially part of FOSIS. Believe and Do Good is the first project where I am working directly with the organization.” - Omar Abu Kalbayn said for Grandmufti.bg.

“Human nature – when you find something valuable you want to share it with the others” – replied the young man to the question how the idea of “transmitting” this to Bulgaria as well. 

The youth initiators during their visit to RS – Momchilgrad

Believe and Do Goodin RS – Momchilgrad: The results

During their last visit to Bulgaria in February this year Omar and his friends got in contact with the Director of RS – Momchilgrad. Their idea is to motivate their peers in the school to be more beneficial to the society.
But we did not want just to give them the fish. We decided to teach them how to catch it.” – the young Muslim also said.

So the first thing which the young initiators did was to organize unformal training session on “Doing good deeds” where everyone from the students of RS – Momchilgrad who wanted, could participate. In addition to training them, the initiators informed them in details about the campaign Believe and Do Good itself.

During the training of the students in Momchilgrad

“Initially there were not many students who were interested in the campaign, but by the end of the day the idea spread as an epidemic. We decided to benefit from the social networks: we created a group where to support the youths while the campaign is running. Just a day later we were amazed by the amount of creative ideas that were born.” – said excitedly the initiator Omar.

Working in small groups during the training session

The students from the religious school divided into two teams – boys and girls. Each of them appointed a leader and assistant leaders to coordinate the actions of the young people in each of the four fields of doing good. For leader of the female team was appointed Fatime Kolash from the village of Dagonovo, a student from 12^th grade at RS – Momchilgrad.

Preparation for the charity bazaar

“In order to raise funds and to begin the good activities we decided to organize a charity bazaar in the boarding house of the girls. We managed to raise a certain amount of money and from the village of one of our fellow students – Dolno Dryanovo, additionally sent us funds.” – the leader of the female group Fatime said for Grandmufti.bg. With the raised amount they bought basic food necessities, and disseminated them to needy people in the town of Momchilgrad.

Helping the needy

Furthermore they bought different fruits and gave them to people in the local park, where the idea was to provoke positive reactions in the local residents towards the Muslims. In the framework of the campaign the girls also cleaned one of the mosques in the town.

Girls in action

To the question what is the strongest incentive for being part of the campaign, the student Fatime Kolash replied “Happiness which I see in the eyes of the person in front of me; the smile on his face, caused by the fact that he met someone to help him.”

The boys also actively joined the cleaning of public areas in the town; they managed to clean also the region near their school in Momchilgrad.

Boys in action

“At the beginning I looked at the idea perfunctory, but later I told myself that it would be very nice if I participate – yet this is one good initiative and a very good example for the others.” – shared the student from 12^th grade Arif Hodzha from the religious school, who is from the village of Bukovo, Gotse Delchev region.

The team of the boys cleaned up the public areas around the school and organized blood donation action, which was joined not only girls from the other team but also teachers from their school. – “There were even many more volunteers to donate blood among our fellow-students but unfortunately it turned out that not all of them meet the requirements for this, for example to have reached the age of majority.” – shared also Mustafa Inuzov, leader of the team of the volunteers boys from the religious schools.

In the framework of their participation in the initiative Believe and Do Good the youths also placed a plastic caps collection box in the school to support of the campaign “Caps in action”.

The Director Ahmed Bozov and the entire management of RS – Momchilgrad were delighted with the activism of their students and by the achieved from them results just for a month. On this occasion in the beginning of March the good-doers were again visited by two of the initiators of    Believe and Do Good for Bulgaria – Abdullah Terzi and Neyzi Karachobanov.

The guests greeted all participants for the shown activity in doing good during the one-month initiative and gave them certificates for participation in the campaign, as well as gifts - board games.

Giving certificates and prizes for doing good

During the meeting there was an opportunity to discuss different aspects of the held initiative, the organizers to receive feedback from the participants, etc.  Furthermore there were discussed also ideas for future trainings and workhsops for the youths in which to participate also the students from the religious school in Momchigrad. With this the Bulgarian participation in the campaign Believe and Do Good was officially completed.

The Students from RS – Momchilgrad with branded T-shirts of the Believe and Do Good campaign

This story is a small example of several things. For that there is a positive change among the young people in the Muslim community in our country is possible and that there is a great sense in working with children and youths. Because they will be the engine of everything that happens to us. And if we realize that this field of working with the Muslim children and youths from Bulgaria is still not full and many people direct their efforts in it, then there is a hope for the future!

Author: L. Chausheva