The local Islamic communities are not only important for adult Muslims but also for the children who accompany them. While at the mosques, they need room to spend their time and play. Therefore, it is important that the Islamic communities can offer an age-appropriate and appealing haven.

Such a haven is now being implemented in one of the Islamic communities we support comprehensively. The sponsoring by the Deutsche Stiftung für Engagement und Ehrenamt enables the community to establish a room for children in which they can spend their time accordingly to their age with books and toys. Furthermore, laptops are provided so that the children can use them for their educational development. Against the backdrop of the fact that some of the kids do not have access to a laptop at home, this is a particularly important point.

However, the children are not only entitled to use the room, but are involved in the whole process of the setting-up. Hence, a crafting workshop for the kids recently took place in the mosque. The children used different materials such as paint and modelling clay to express their ideas for the kids’ room. In this way their suggestions and wishes can easily be taken into consideration for the realisation of the project. Furthermore, the children – like their attendant parents – were interviewed by volunteers of the mosque regarding their ideas and suggestions for the room.
In this way, the children not only represent the target group that can use the new room, but they become agents themselves who can help form the project. Self-empowerment and a rise in the belief of one’s scope for action are thus central for the project.

During the next steps, the kids’ ideas are to be implemented with their help and the necessary material is to be bought. Afterwards a little opening ceremony is planned to inaugurate the room and to celebrate the success of the Islamic community.