Help grow Islam in rural New Zealand! Supporting the Muslim community of Rotorua to acquire a safe and suitable Islamic Centre

The Muslim community of Rotorua is a growing community. We are using an old residential facility as our premises for a decade and it has become inadequate in terms of size and suitability in terms of health and safety. In addition, even after the Christchurch event, we still face stigma locally due to misinformation and it is difficult to source funds locally.

Fortunately, we, the muslim women, are a multicultural group of woman who have transcended all differences and have common goals. Like all mothers, we want the best for our children. Like all muslims, we would like to inform others about the peace and unity that is the ethos of Islam. We do this by trying to involve ourselves in the community where possible (currently a charity drive is being held to support families during Covid 19). We have been running arabic classes (attended by non muslim children as well), Quran and general knowledge classes. The woman all have different professions and contribute to the community in different ways, while still being wives, mothers and educating the next generations. This requires much dedication and time but we persevere. Our current facility accommodates only 12 females, very scant bathroom facilities and no place to hold our classes (sometimes we hold it outside if weather permits). The facility has poor ventilation and insulation, is unbearably hot in summer and icy cold in winter. We teach our kids while sitting on the floor huddled around two to three portable heaters. Despite this, they endure and persevere and learn beautifully mashaAllah.

We now have an opportunity to acquire a premises that is bigger in size and more suitable in terms of space, health and safety with an opportunity for more space for the expanding muslim community and increased interface with the larger community. It is more suitable for our children to learn and for us to worship and gather as a community. We have managed to raise NZ 80K over the past few years but require another 300K. We know this is ambitious but any assistance will be humbly accepted and fully appreciated.