The September was an eventful month in our project Islamic welfare work. By describing the latest happenings in one of our supported mosques in Chemnitz, the following article shows how diverse the activities of our team were and still are.

Since the issue of security is kind of a long runner, the month started with an exchange meeting between the Chemnitz police administration and representatives of the community. Two police officers took part in this meeting which was initiated and accompanied by the project team. They took the concerns expressed by the mosque’s representatives very seriously. Thus, a security concept was developed cooperatively, which for example includes the adequate procedure in specific threat situations. Furthermore, the officials gave some on-side advice regarding the anti-burglary protection.

Only a few days later a qualification event regarding the topic of public relations followed. Together with community members the project team developed strategies on how events taking place in the mosque, such as an open mosque and fast-breaking, can be promoted effectively.

A central part in these activities are volunteers, which are also existent in this community. However, there are many ideas how the mosque’s social offerings can be enhanced. Thus, also in September, the project team conducted a workshop together with the community members. Further relevant topics were identified through this workshop that are to be worked on before the year’s end. One of them is the activation of additional volunteers.

Also, a specific enterprise was successfully launched. After an interactive planning workshop took place last year, which dealt with the establishment of a kids play room, and a qualification event regarding project work was conducted later on, a specific plan for the realisation of the idea was phrased based on the new learnings. Now, in September, the plan for implementation of the kids room was finalised, while the real activities’ kick-off will be in October.

To enhance the learning-by-doing-effect and to organise the knowledge gain as sustainable as possible, the project team supports the community in the first instance with all the practical on-site work. In this way we ensure that on the one hand a kids play room is created that enriches the social offering of the mosque. On the other hand, this procedure also ensures that the way to go to reach the goal is as insightful as possible for as many community members as possible.

So it becomes clear: The September was very eventful and also the upcoming weeks will be exciting and work-intensive for our project team.