Reach Out To Asia (Rota) director, Essa al-Mannai, delivered a presentation sharing the Qatar-based charity’s experiences at the fourth World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists (WCMP), held in Dubai last week.
This year’s conference was themed ‘Defining the roadmap for the next decade’ and covered a variety of topics including ways to improve the Muslim world, ways instilling inherent Islamic values into philanthropy, and dealing with issues unique to the Muslim world, amongst other subjects. Numerous speakers were invited to give their input on the themes, including al-Mannai.
Al-Mannai’s presentation, entitled ‘A glimpse into the next decade: Sharing Rota’s vision and experience’ provided a case study into the charity’s unique experiences in dealing with unpredictable circumstances in the countries where it is working.
The presentation offered a general outlook on Qatar National Vision 2030, and its feeds to different entities’ strategic objectives and planning, especially with the roles played by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like Qatar Foundation.
Rota takes the Foundation’s commitment to educational opportunities for all to underprivileged communities across the Asian continent. Its aid programmes bring relief to disaster areas, supported by volunteerism in Qatar, especially among the Education City community.
Rota’s mission and strategy, and its relation to Vision 2030, was also discussed from different aspects, especially on the role of human development and empowerment.
One of Rota’s main strategic objective is to improve the quality of education in crisis-affected countries by promoting new or improved teaching techniques and tools, facilitating the sharing of expertise among educators, and helping to ensure that schooling prepares young people for the realities of local and global economies.
The WCMP was started four years ago to help Muslim donor and non-profit groups align their contributions to global humanitarian causes.
“The 4th WCMP provided us with an ideal forum to discuss Rota’s visions and experiences over the past several years,” said al-Mannai. “By sharing our stories with the participants, we demonstrated how philanthropic NGOs can successfully work with other related organisations, whether governmental or non-governmental, towards a common vision. We hope that the Rota experiences we shared will be a foundation for a blueprint which all Muslim countries can base their strategic philanthropic activities on.”
Al-Mannai cited Rota’s Indonesia project as an example. By partnering with the Government of Klaten, Indonesian Ministry of Education, and the Titian Foundation (a local NGO), three successful education projects were completed. Because of this co-operation, the local community now has access to educational and vocational schools with extensively trained teachers. The positive impact from this sustainable project will be felt for years to come.
“Our project in Indonesia was an ideal example in which several intrinsically different organisations worked together successfully towards a common goal,” added al-Mannai. “We want to send the message that there is no reason that the co-operation model that we presented cannot be successfully mirrored in other societies.”
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