Published on Oct 06 2009 

 On 14^th June, 2009, the Ta’leem department of Majlis Khuddamul Ahmadiyya North West Region organised an awareness session related to Drugs and Alcohol usage at Darul-Aman Manchester. A huge number of people including under age youth now consume more drugs and alcohol than ever before. This very often leads to other problems like crime, antisocial behaviour etc.  This has now been acknowledged by the local governments and steps are being taken to tackle this problem.  Recently Manchester City Council launched a project where community workers were trained to deliver awareness sessions in different communities and to various organisations in order to highlight the problem, raise awareness about negative effects of these substances and its solutions.

Considering it to be an important matter, Majlis Khuddamul Ahmadiyya North West organised an awareness session so that Khuddam can be educated in advance about these problems so that not only they can protect themselves from these bad habits but also can support other friends weather in Jamaat or outside the Jamaat.

 This session was delivered by Mr Jawad Ahmad, a representative of a local organisation Black Health Agency (BHA) who is responsible for training community workers on behalf of Manchester City Council and myself Nadim Khawaja Nazim Ta’leem North West.

 The programme lasted about 2 and half hours starting at 1pm, with the recitation of Holy Qur’an and finishing about 3:30pm including a break for Zuhr/Asr Salaat and refreshments.

 

 

 

The session included a PowerPoint presentation with various activities in between where drugs were defined, different classes of drugs and their legal position was explained, their types and effects on individual lives and families and over all effect on the society were highlighted. Also participants were informed about different signs which indicate that someone is using drugs/alcohol. Most importantly what help is available to those who unfortunately are addicted and want to quit the habit.  Islamic perspective on the subject was also highlighted by giving references from the Holy Qur’an and different Ahadith.

 One interesting part of the session was the actual Drug Box itself which contained replicas of different drugs and other harmful substances. Every one was quite intrigued to see what different drugs looked like. The objective was to enable participants to be able to recognise these drugs so that they can safeguard themselves or anyone else.  Participants were also involved in different activities which were meant to increase their knowledge related to this subject.

 

This programme was attended by: 15 Khuddam, 6 Atfal and 9 Ansar from Manchester South, 10 Khuddam, 9 Atfal and 7 Ansar from Manchester North, 1 Nasir from Blackburn. making the total attendance 57.

 

 Some of the participants were also given free gifts like T shirts, pens and information leaflets etc.

Feedback about the programme was very positive.  Some young Khuddam came up to me and expressed how much they enjoyed it benefited from the information provided.  They said that they would like more of these programmes organised in the similar way.  Some of them also said that they would prefer some programmes where their parents are not invited so that they can express themselves freely.

 At the end of the presentation Jawad Sahib from BHA expressed his feelings that he had never been to an Ahmadiyya Muslim Mosque before and this was the first visit which he enjoyed very much.  He said that everyone was very hospitable and polite.  He also said that generally it is impossible for organisations like his to get involved with mosques and deliver any government initiatives but he found Ahmadiyya Muslim Community to be proactive and come forward themselves and invite him to deliver this session.  He thanked everyone for attending the session and giving him an opportunity to come here and hoped that this will continue in future.

It is hoped that this programme will benefit participants greatly and Insha’Allah more sessions on different topics will be organised in future.