Head of Campaigns - July-September 2010

Assalamu Alaikum,

The Campaigns Committee has set its priorities for this year to be as follows:

1. To grow Charity Week

2. To Launch the FOSIS Community Project

3. To nurture future leaders

4. Serve the Muslim Community

What has been done so far?

Alhamdulillah, the Charity Week project has become a lot bigger than it was in previous years. The Midlands region is now running Charity Week with FOSIS, the South region have Alhamdulillah gotten involved with Charity Week for the first time ever masha’Allah.

FOSIS Community Project has been one of the main priorities this year, the launch of this project will take place insha’Allah this Academic year. Due to unforeseen circumstances, sister Zara Kadir, the head of FCP had to step down from the project. May Allah bless her and reward her manifolds for her efforts. This did slow us down a little but Alhamdulillah, with brother Furqan taking up the project, things will be back on track very soon insha’Allah.

Nurturing Future Leaders: We have successfully managed to put together an award scheme, taylored for Muslim Students, with Muslim Youth Skills. The FOSIS Community Service Award has a similar structure to the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, but in order to get an award in our scheme, students will need to serve the community around them. The Essay Competition has had several entries so far masha’Allah and the ball seems to be rolling very quickly on that as well.

Serving the Muslim community: Several meetings have been held with many organisations, and insha’Allah FOSIS Campaigns will be looking to hold conferences and events, throughout the year, on Islamophobia and raising awareness on issues surrounding Human Rights and Ethnic Profiling.

May Allah make our work easy for us and grant us success in this life and in the hereafter. Ameen

Head of Campaigns- March & April

Pray this message finds you in the best of health and Iman.

The Campaigns Committee have worked very hard throughout this year. This past month was a huge success in the sense that we were able to reshape the committee and its work. We're looking to revive the great things FOSIS did in the past, such as the Essay competition. Everyone is eager to make FCP take over the hearts and minds of ISocs.

So, a little bit about the FOSIS Essay Competition:

This project is aimed towards:

Providing Muslim students with the opportunity to utilise, and improve, their writing skills, express their views and share ideas with other Muslim students across the country.

Nurturing future leaders through providing the winners with opportunities to go on an internship with a Muslim organisation, where they can develop their skills and gain experience in a field of their interest.
Strengthening our relationship with other organisations whose work may be similar to ours in nature and whose moral and financial support we need.
Reviving the idea of the FOSIS publications which used to be sold on the shelves at different bookstores up and down the country.

Having an ANNUAL Essay Competition - Essays on the following topics, does this:

Foreign Policy,
International Affairs (Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine...),
Human Rights,
Islamophobia,
Poverty; Causes and solutions.
Islamic Civilisation and the modern world
A book would be published with the winning Essays and the names of those who wrote the essays.


We're also developing a Da'wa training Campaign, Khateeb training Campaign! You will hear more about them in my end of year report insha'Allah.

Finally, sister Sumaya got tne ball rolling and you will hear the latest news on the Palestine Trip very soon.

May Allah bless the Campaign-ers and grant them success in their exams, dunya and the hereafter.

As we draw close to the end of the year the focus now shifts on committee building, recruitment, handover plans etc. so please do get in contact if you would like to be involved. Now is the ideal time to show interest and by all means feel free to get in contact head.campaigns@fosis.org.uk.

Jzk

Ws

Head of Campaigns- January & February 2010

Assalamu Alaikum,

Alhamdulillah, the second semester was quite busy for the Campaigns Committee, not much talking took place on the egroups, but lots of work was being carried out across the board masha'Allah.

Charity Week:

Committee structure has been put in place and was approved by the Campaigns Committee and the NEC.

Recruitment:

• The first ever National Charity Week Treasurer was recruited alhamdulillah. Sister Seema Patel will be overseeing the Charity Week expenses for all regions and will be given intensive training, by Islamic Relief, on how to  run their online banking system.
• The Charity Week Communications Officer, Ayesha Saleem, has been appointed.
• Regional Rep's Coordinator is yet to be appointed.
• The first CW Regional rep has been elected in Ireland, the rest will be elected during their respective regional AGM's insha'Allah

Palestine Campaign:

Palestine conference and Palestine Week were a huge success alhamdulillah.

National Fri-Day Collections for Palestine Week money is still coming in from ISocs, the total raised will be announced as soon as all the money comes in and gets counted.

Post Conference wristband count and registration count revealed that we had a turnout of over 450 people masha'Allah.

The speakers were very happy with FOSIS and had a great time at the conference.

I would like to thank sister Sumaya Almari and brother Ahmad Tahboub for the amazing work, which they carried out during the build up to and during the Palestine Week and Conference, respectively.

Palestine Trip:

Below is the proposed itinerary for the FOSIS Palestine Trip this summer, with FoA, AP and BMI insha'Allah. We'll be able to provide sponsorship for upto 3 people insha'Allah.

We can sentd multiples of 12, because each tour group consists of 12 people, we can send 12, 24, 36...etc. As you may be aware, the last three days of the trip will very likely be the first three days of Ramadhan, in which case I've spoken with AP about organising for Taraweeh to be prayed at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

We're also working on another trip with Lecturers from the Gaza University. This trip will be targetting people who are high up in the student scene, educating them about the conflict from the basics and it focuses more on the political aspects of the conflict as well as it's impact on Education in Palestine.

August 3rd Meet in the Old City in Jerusalem. Introduction event, tour of tourist sites and overview of what is happening in the Old City. Evening meal. Stay in Hostel.

August 4th A visit of the wall, checkpoints, house demolitions and restrictions on Palestinians by Al Haq. Another talk will be conducted with PASSIA to give a political overview. The evening will be spent in activist tents designed to prevent house demolitions.

August 5th A tour of Bethlehem with the organisation Open Bethlehem http://openbethlehem.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 stay in Hostel in Bethlehem

August 6th A tour of the Centre of Hebron with the ISM and a tour in the late afternoon/evening of the village of Susya. Spend the evening with families in the villages.

August 7th Rise at sunrise with the shepherds to walk their sheep. The rest of the day is open for tour participants to pursue other interests they may have. If there is no agreement the day will be spent with organisations with Palestinians from the areas occupied in 1948 who will explain the injustices faced by the Palestinian community in Israel.

August 8th Tour of Ramallah, the village of Nillin and Jalazon refugee camp. Meet Birzeit Student Council who will tell us about the problems faced by students. Stay in Ramallah hostel.

August 9th Nablus meet with a professor at Al-Najah University who will conduct a tour of Nablus, its surrounding refugee camps and meet with student at Al-Najah University. Stay in Nablus.

August 10th Morning seeing anything else in Nablus, go to the village of Yanoon and meet the people there.

August 11th Visit Qalqilya and meet with women's organisations, return to Ramallah for the evening.

August 12th Day of workshops. Talk by Dahood from Stop the Wall outlining the economic Apartheid model put in place by Israel as well as a talk by Omar Barghouti who will explain the need for boycott. Have dinner together, final fair well and organisation of volunteer positions.

Doha Conference

Organisations and student bodies from around the world come together, as well as students and academics from Palestine, to discuss how to improve Education in Gaza and the West Bank. The conference is hosted by Al-Fakhoora, which is set up by Skeikha Mooza of Qatar. Insha'Allah FOSIS delegates to this conference will have their expenses covered by CAABU.

FOSIS Community Project:

- We now have regional reps in every region who have managed to confirm three ISocs, from every region, for the FCP day which will be taking place after the Easter Holidays.

- The project's video has been produced and put up on Youtube and we're currently working on a video.

We now have Campaigns Reps in London who are going to get London ISocs involved with the FCP.

The next steps will be to:

a. finalise the structure the Project

b. Write up documents about the Project, its purpose and its Aims and Objectives.

b. Deliver workshops and seminars at FOSIS events

c. Marketing for the project and getting ISocs involved with it.

d. UCAS Workshops and the Fairtrade Campaign will be launched this Summer insha'Allah.

There is so much work to be done over the course of the next few months. But with Allah's support, the most difficult of challenges become easy to overcome.

Become part of the team, which will build what can potentially be one of the most inspiring committees in our organisation. Get in touch Head.Campaigns@fosis.org.uk

Finally, I would like to finish off by quoting a Hadith in which the Messenger of Allah says "Surely Allah loves it most when His slave perfects the work he does". May Allah give us the ability to maintain the purest of intentions and may He grant us the ability to perfect our work. May Allah, through this work, bring us together under the one vision of 'serving the path of Allah'. Ameen

Wassalamu Alaikum

Head of Campaigns- December 2009

Have you ever dreamt of having a committee that reaches out, not only to Muslim students, but also the Muslim community and even the non-Muslim community?

Well, the Campaigns Committee has made your dream come true!

Alhamdulillah, the committee was due to have its first face-to-face meeting on Tuesday 5th of January 2010, but the meeting was cancelled as a result of transport to and from Manchester being cancelled because of the snow. This however didn't get in the way of the committee, and by the grace of Allah we had the meeting online on Tuesday evening.

Alhamdulillah, 17 people attended the meeting and made it a huge success. The Campaigns Committee Mission statement has been written and is due to be finalised by next Wednesday insha'Allah, alongside with the Motto. The motto was designed in such a way to answer three key questions:

1. What do we aim to do?
2. How will we do it?
3. For whom will we do it?

Over the course of the next week or so, the structure of the committee will be drawn and the priorities for the rest of the year will be set. Once that, the motto and the Mission Statement are finalised, we will begin with the Marketing campaign insha'Allah, through which we will aim to make the Committee known to ISocs and to bring people into the committee.

Our main priority this year is to build the foundation in order to establish a well structured committee so that it becomes self sustainable and consistent.

We also selected a member of the committee to get IT training and be in charge of the Campaigns section of the FOSIS website, which will be very active insha'Allah. The finalised mission statement and the motto will be put up on the website insha'Allah as well as the new logo design which is being worked on.

Part two of the Blog is about the individual Campaigns:

Charity Week:

I have spoken to brother Rashid (VP. ISCC) and have come up to an agreement on the structure of the FOSIS Charity Week Committee. It will insha'Allah be made up of:
- FOSIS Head of Campaigns
- FOSIS VP ISCC
- FOSIS Regional Chairs
- Charity Week Regional Reps (Who will sit on both, the Campaigns Committee and their respective regional Committee).

As for the National Charity Week Committee, the FOSIS VP. ISCC, Head of Campaigns and the Regional Chairs will sit on that committee. This will give FOSIS a bigger presence on the Charity Week project and will also help keep our work Centralised insha'Allah.

I will be attending the National Charity Week meeting with ULU and Islamic Relief. Brother Rashid is also going to attend and we're hoping to bring the Regional Chairs with us to the meeting. At this meeting, this year's Charity Week project will be evaluated and the initial planning will take place for Charity Week 2010. Feedback on this meeting will be provided in my next blog insha'Allah.

Palestine Campaign:

Palestine Week now is being finalised, speakers are confirming and the Committee has now moved on to discussing publicity and Marketing for the Week. At the end of the Week, a Conference will be held insha'Allah and the venue for the conference is to be confirmed insha'Allah. It will, however, most likely be in Manchester insha'Allah.

Recruitment is looking extremely positive and more people are coming on board now alhamdulillah.

The next step will insha'Allah be to speak to the regional committees and start getting ISocs involved with the Project insha'Allah.

FOSIS Community Project:

The project's video is made now and will be put up on Youtube and the FOSIS site as soon as possible insha'Allah.
We now have Campaigns Reps in London who are going to get London ISocs involved with the FCP.
The next steps will be to:
a. finalise the structure the Project
b. Write up documents about the Project, its purpose and its Aims and Objectives.
b. Deliver workshops and seminars at FOSIS events
c. Marketing for the project and getting ISocs involved with it.

Campaigns which we will work on over the course of the next few months:
- Climate Change
- MADE In Europe (Leadership Training and Personal Development)
- Islamophobia
- Raising awareness on Global Injustices
- Da'wa Campaigns and nurturing Da'iis within the community
- Volunteering opportunities

There is so much work to be done over the course of the next few months. But with Allah's support, the most difficult of challenges become easy to overcome.

Become part of the team which will build what can potentially be one of the most inspiring committees in our organisation. Get in touch -Head.Campaigns@fosis.org.uk

NEC Work

- TEAM FOSIS - I'm currently working on strengthening the bonds within Team FOSIS. I'll be doing this by organising regular Socials for Team FOSIS, ranging from BBQ's and Hikes to Ice Skating and Falconering. The aim is to have a social during every holiday, where members of team FOSIS get the chance to spend some non-FOSIS time with each other and establish true brotherhood and sisterhood.
- DEVELOPMENT - I'm also working on a self development programme, with help from sister Abida (VP. THR) for team FOSIS members.
- MARKETING - I've come across a book written by Members of FOSIS, covering a wide range of topics. I'm working with the FOSIS Office Manager on getting the Publishers of the book to reprint copies of the book for us to sell on the FOSIS website and at Islamic Bookstores.
- CAREER DEVELOPMENT - I've stepped down from coordinating the Career Development Project after being co-opted on to the NEC. The project is now being led by sister Nada Mansy but I still sit on her committee and will continue to help her out with the project.

If you're interested in helping out with any of the above projects, please do get in touch with me insha'Allah.

Finally, I would like to finish off by quoting a Hadith in which the Messenger of Allah says "Surely Allah loves it most when His slave perfects the work he does". May Allah give us the ability to maintain the purest of intentions and may He grant us the ability to perfect our work. May Allah, through this work, bring us together under the one vision of 'serving the path of Allah'. Ameen

Wassalamu Alaikum