Munawer Rattansey - Connecting Our Community

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Education - A Must For The Advancement Of Our Community

Education

Imam Ali (A.S.) once told his companion Kumail: 'Remember Kumail, Knowledge is better than and superior to wealth because it protects you and you have to guard wealth because wealth decreases if you keep on spending it and knowledge increases the more you make use of it.' It is a fact that education is key to unlocking the potential of a human being. As Shia Ithna Asheri Muslims, we must strive to be leaders in alleducational fields for both economic and intellectual benefit.

With a more educated community, our members stand a better chance of being economically stable. With a more educated community, we can learn to change and advance our community for the better, and with a more educated community we can be of greater benefit to the wider world in the tradition of our Holy Prophet (pbuh).

Today we face a global financial crisis. Many of our young people will be facing difficult trying times to secure jobs. Other members of our community may be facing the prospect of redundancy or the possibility of a business collapsing.

These are difficult times and there are no easy quick fix solutions. The World Federation must support these community members in their time of need and one of the many ways to do this is to develop our educational support schemes.

I pledge to focus the energies and resources of The World Federation in developing a higher education agenda for everyone regardless of gender, location or financial standing. I want to make available more scholarship opportunities for all. I want to develop a stronger careers strategy and provide support to regional bodies and jamaats to help their members with career guidance and information on training. I want The World Federation to act as a mechanism to help regional bodies and jamaats to share best practices when it comes to educational policy, so that our community members can benefit from one another and learn from each others experiances.

As part of my manifesto, I am developing a much more detailed educational policy. In order to finalise this detailed educational policy, I would dearly like to hear from you. Please let me know your thoughts to the below questions:

- Are you finding the job market challenging yourself? And if so how could The World Federation support you better?
- What areas of education can The World Federation develop?
- How can we create a strong educational culture in our community?