Sadaqa Train

 

Visit to Ashalaja

Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear kufis and have thick long beards. And that is very true about the foundation of Imam Harun in Ashalaja; near Amasaman, Greater Accra region. This is a group of Muslim brothers head-quartered in Achimota with branches in two other locations in Accra.
They preach Allah’s words to people still steeped in idolatry right here in the Greater Accra Region.

The beauty of the work of this group is, it is not a one-off affair. This crop of men build mosques, have teachers who frequent the communities for weekend madrassa as well as an Imam who leads jummah prayers. Alhamdulillaah.

After weeks of unrelenting soliciting for donations, and sorting and gathering of logistics at our Taqwa Masjid base, we were all set for the trip to Ashalaja, a cluster of villages.

BOSUAFISÉ was the first of 4 villages we visited. Our visit happened to have coincided with that of Imam Harun's organisation. The group members were already breaking their backs under the sweltering harmattan sun in building up a mosque for the community. We quickly exchanged pleasantries and moved on to the next three villages. [Susikop3, Gbagblaja & Adembra]

The story was virtually the same for all 3 villages. Communities which seemed cut off from the rest of civilization, engaged in subsistence farming, kids in tattered clothes, and parents  bowing to idols.
We engaged the local communities in some dawah, visited the mosques which had been put up and got to witness the level of Islamic knowledge the kids had.

Sadaqa Train undertook a basic health screening for one of the communities.

Interestingly, albeit sad, was how the adults in most of the communities were more than willing to allow their kids revert to Islam but they themselves were reluctant to accept Islam. By their logic, they were too old and steeped in their ways for them to revert.

After Asr salat had been said, we made some dawah to the jamaa, and an official presentation of the donations was made.

Short of being effusive, the Imam was extremely thrilled about the activities of Sadaqa Train. To him, he found it amazing that young Muslims could collectivize on social media and undertake such a societal good.

Challenges

One of the main challenges of dawah in the village, was to get more volunteers to teach the children there at regular intervals, so as to keep them firm on the deen.

Another need was getting Muslim infrastructure for the villages.