The World Federation of KSIMC

HMGS, DSM - Leads the way in Virtual Madrasah and Darsa 2020

In an effort to strengthen regional ties and cross transfer of skills to one another, AFED and FAC (Federation of Australasia Communities) put into effect the training and implementation of Cisco Web Services including but not limited to video conferencing, cloud services, online learning and using virtual spaces to create and disseminate information.

Br Abbas Aly through the Imam Hasan Center - Sydney had the opportunity to conduct and provide access to these technologies to the HMGS of KSIJ Dar Tabligh.

The Husayni Madrasah Girls Section (HMGS) of KSIJ Dar es Salaam has achieved milestones in establishing virtual academic sessions for their students during this pandemic. They have also set up a virtual darsa for their students for the Holy Month of Ramadan. This great initiative was proposed and worked upon by the Head of the Qur’an Department, Sister Kaneez Dharamsi and her admin team, with the support of the Principal Sister Shaida Abdulrasul. The HMGS Team is a Ladies Committee that functions under the Dar es Salaam Tabligh Board.

They have shared with us the process and the system they used to ensure that normal activities carry on. The focus has been that the children and youth of the community do not miss out on maximizing learning in the Holy Month of Ramadan. It may be worth mentioning that they have teachers of various ages, experience and qualification and thus not all are conversant with technology. This was a challenge that the team took up with passion and determination.

Sister Shaida Abdulrasul and her team took the following steps to serve their students with the usual Academic and Qur’an sessions during this pandemic and leading into the month of Ramadan.

Academic Learning:  Teachers pre-recorded their lessons and this was filtered out to the students as per the normal Saturday morning routine. Learning was measured using online quiz and games. This was done to serve all the 830 students enrolled at HMGS.

Qur’an Time: The Qur’an Team wanted to maintain the annual Darsa setup and decided to make it happen online. Alhamdullilah, 270 girls of ages 8 to 15 have been enrolled in 35 Quran Darsa Benches. These are conducted and supported by a team of 75 ladies including teachers, assistants and admin. The one-hour online sessions will be held simultaneously for Qur’an recitation and Tajweed classes.  They have chosen the theme of Surah Rahman for their recorded Tadabbur sessions. The objective is to highlight gratitude and change mindsets to seek the good in every situation. Daily videos will be sent according to class and age of students as a part of the Darsa learning. Students look forward to the Taddabur sessions as it is taught with a practical and contemporary approach.

The Head of Qur’an and her team have played a pivotal role in pushing forward this year’s Darsa Project.

Classes 1 & 2:  Not being left out, the teachers of the younger children have compiled audio-books and presentations on alternating themes of asmaul husna and akhlaq. These are enhanced with online games as well as DIY worksheets. In all these preparations the team was proud to inform us that they are encouraging parents not to print worksheets but rather recreate/copy the simple activities to enhance literacy skills and reduce waste.

AFED reached out to Sister Shaida Abdulrasul to comment on their activities. She had the following to say:

“We are grateful to have this opportunity to challenge ourselves and continue providing our students with the material they require during these times. We understand that parents and teachers alike are looking forward to the continued growth and development of the children.

This experience has brought about an immense appreciation for regular Madrasah classes.

It has also upgraded teaching skills and revealed the passion and talent of our teachers, who have been innovative and creative in their online teaching.  We are seeing teaching being transformed into a new mode!  This will need to be adapted to and continuously enriched in-order to maintain and cater to the changing needs of our learners.

The HMGS Madrasah is strengthened by an amazing team of 130 staff and has very supportive parents. Furthermore, we have and appreciate the support and encouragement of our Tabligh Board led by Br. Murtaza Sikander. They give us the space and trust to explore and materialize our projects.”

AFED also reached out to Br Abbas Aly of the Federation of Australasia Communities, who so graciously provided the technology tools and training that allowed the Dar es Salaam team to progress in their endeavors. Br Abbas provided the following statement:

“I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to provide mere tools to educators who have put their heart and soul into learning and acquainting themselves with the technology that will disseminate their prepared material to the kids of our community.
Their hard work and dedication in preparing the material will surely pay off and I urge the Dar es Salaam community to take full advantage of these facilities provided by them. I urge the world Khoja community to take lessons from this group of dedicated teachers and support staff and initiate these for their local communities’’

Training Session for Teachers and Educators on using the virtual meeting software

Poster created by the HMGS of Dar Tabligh for registration of darsa for students.

Day 1 of the Darsa in action, 24th April 2020, 1st Night of Ramadhan.