Children’s Interfaith Friendship

Now can little Muslims spend their free time with maximum use and fun? By going to a specialized cam of course! Put in to the beauty of the Transcarpathia, verified programme for kids and nice company, and you’ll get the Islamic Children’s Camp “Friendship” which took place in the town of Ust’-Chorna, Western Ukraine, last week. Facilitating such a scale event so far away from the capital was the first experience of that kind for the social organisation “An-Noor”. they, however, did it perfectly well.

 

The fact that the camp was held in a sequester place of Carpathian mountains where the kids were always in the company of one another helped them to adapt to one another fast and make friends. Which, in fact, justified the camp’s title.

 

Besides playing fun sports games in the open air, such as archery and crossbow-shooting, real fights with toy swords, competitions for speed and duration, the participants received an intensive study programme  of lectures and practical lessons on Islam.

 

The kids learned how to perform ablution and prayers, many of them learned several Suras from the Holy Qur’an. Besides, Mr.Haidar Al-Hajj, Shaikh Hafidh from Kyiv Islamic Cultural Centre, explained typical mistakes while praying, importance of worshiping on time, necessity of good attitude towards parents and many other basics of islam.

 

Most of the knowledge was gained during games and in the open dialogue, which helped the children to take it in and understand the meaning of each lesson.

 

Besides children from the Muslim families, one Christian boy, Andrey also took part in the camp. The boy was a grandson of one of the bus drivers who delivered the whole company to Transcarpathia. The boy asked to admit himself to the camp, as Muslim kids “are very good friends”, which they did, as neither the grandfather nor the camp administration objected. “All in all, they are common bays, like everyone else — only their faith is different. And again, they spend less time playing computer games, so they’re much more interesting to talk to then other kids. They are more open for communication. I liked being here a lot; it’s a pity we’re already leaving.”

 

The main thing acknowledged by both the facilitators, teachers and participants, is that it was fun and informative, which means the event was for a good reason. Children discussed their plans for the next camp, which is, God willing, to take place next year, on their way to Kyiv.