Quran Braille Workshop in Nigeria
All Praises and Adorations are due to Allah (SWT), may His Peace and Benedictions be showered on the noblest of mankind, Mustafa Muhammad (SAW), his household, companions and on all those that tread the path of Islam till the last day.)
A Qur'an Braille workshop was jointly organised by the Muslim Association of Visually Impaired of Nigeria [MAVIN] and Busari Bello Olaniyan Foundation [BBOF] and facilitated by Madrassa An-Noor for the blind, South-Africa between 17th and 20th JumadalThani, 1435AH (17th and 20thApril, 2014) at Nasrullah College, Isheri-Olofin, Lagos, Nigeria.
From across the 14 states of Nigeria (48 male and 5 female) delegates attended.This role was a great improvement over previous workshops.
The participants regretted the absence of the five facilitators from the Madrassa An-Noor for the Blind, South Africa.
However in their place, Ustaz Sulaiman Hamza and Brother Muhammed Baba Ahmed, two blind tutors who attended the first workshop in Oyo, Nigeria, in 2011 were the instructors for this workshop. Certificates of participation were issued to participants at the end of the workshop.
By courtesy of Madrassa An-Noor, the following materials were distributed to all participants as follows:
• Each visually impaired participant was given a copy of the Braille Quran primer and a CD to accompany.
• Each sighted participants got a CD player along with the printed Braille Qur’an primer.
• Each State Chapter of MAVIN got 2 copies of the printed Braille Qur’an primer along with 2 copies of the JuzAmma to serve as teaching aids in their respective states when they return home.
• A copy of the Tajwid pack was presented to the Chief Tutor, UstazSulaiman Hamza, while the remaining two were shared between the North and South of MAVIN.
Feeding and accommodation:
No registration fee was charged because it was not in our tradition, considering the financial status of members. Shuttling between classes and accommodation was a great discomfort for us. We just had to make do with what we had.
We would like to thank Madrassa An-Noor for the Blind which happens to be the only institution for the Blind in the whole of Africa, if not throughout the world, at least to the best of our knowledge. We are dreaming of having one in our country, Nigeria. We have drawn up a proposal to that effect and we may need your support in terms of logistics and administrative insight. We are also very grateful to our host who did all they could to make us comfortable. We managed to serve our participants with a moderate food which our meager fund could provide. We never thought we could successfully host this event but with reliance on Allah Almighty, Allah made this workshop possible.
May Allah (SWT) accept all our efforts.Aameen.
MuslihudeenBankole,
Amir (National President),
Muslim Association of Visually Impaired of Nigeria
