Abubacarr Sidique Foundation holds AGM

Abubacarr Sidique Foundation for Da'awah and Orphans Welfare, an organisation established to assist needy orphans in Gunjur and its environs, on Tuesday held its annual general meeting at the Gunjur Arabic School.

Speaking on the occasion, the chairman of the Foundation, Alhagie Sandang Bojang, said the Foundation was established in 2006 as a charitable organization which has registered and sponsoring more than 27 orphans in Gunjur as its first since September 2006/07.

"The Foundation is a non-profit making body, non-political, non-partisan and it is democratic and twenty-seven orphans in Gunjur were fortunate to be sponsored by the foundation as the first batch in September 2006-2007," he said.

He added that in 2007-2008 the foundation was able to increase the number from 27 to 47 students including 17 girls and 30 boys.

He also said that in 2008/09 academic year, the same success was registered by increasing the number from 47 students to 53 students out of which 17 were girls and 36 were boys.

He said further that in the 2009/10 academic year, the foundation continued to increase its efforts to provide assistance to all those underprivileged who were registered by the foundation as it is in their constitution.

The number was also increased from 53 to 77 students of 26 girls and 51boys, he said, adding that the foundation has had to stop sponsoring eight students because "they were not serious with education".

"The foundation primarily focuses on providing education, food, shelter, clothing, medical facilities and skill training for needy orphans and reverts once the funds are available and can expand its operations to the provision of recreational amenities for the needy orphans only," Bojang explained.

The foundation is divided into four committees such as the welfare committee. This committee is responsible for identifying and registering orphans and during the year under review has registered three hundred orphans.

The education committee is responsible for all educational activities. The committee is in charge of the Foundation’s library, which has books in Arabic, French, and English.

There is also the Dawa'ah committee responsible for teaching and registration of reverts and for organising Islamic conferences.

The foundation also has a women's wing committee responsible for all women-related issues and activities of the foundation. The committee's main aim is to generate revenue for widows and also to look after the general welfare of the orphans.

He finally thanked all those supporting his foundation in one way or the other and appealed for more support for the foundation.

The treasurer of the Foundation, Oustass Dembo Curusu Touray, also spoke at the programme.