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The Organisers:
The Camp was organised by the Education Committee of the Council of European Jamaats. The success of the Nairobi Annual Camp organised by the Tabligh Committee of Dar-es-Salaam Jamaat, provided the impetus and the inspiration for a similar styled residential camp for girls in the UK. The day to day organisation and administration in the setting up and leading to the final Camp was undertaken by the Chairman of The Education Committee of Council of European Jamaats, Murtaza Datoo.
Location:
The Camp was initially to be held at the Isle of Wight site. Due to a last minute change by the Camp Authorities, CoEJ had to look for an alternative site. After intensive and amicable negotiations, an alternative site at Kingswood (near Wolverhampton) was allocated. This site proved to be equally suitable, convenient and administratively acceptable for the group's academic, sports and social activities.
Duration:
The Camp was run in the summer season, for eleven days inclusive, between 14th and 24th of August 1999. On Saturday 14th August, the campers met at Stanmore at Noon and after refreshments boarded the coach for the two hours drive to Birmingham. The girls, accompanied by the lady instructors, travelled in their own exclusive coach. At Birmingham, more Campers joined the Group. Namaz was offered and luncheon was had. From Birmingham, it was another ride of about an hour, to the Kingswood Camp. The Paris and Wessex Campers came direct from Portsmouth to Kingswood in a mini coach.
After ten days of varied activities, the group returned to Stanmore, via Birmingham, on Tuesday, 24th August. Again the girls, accompanied by the lady instructors, travelled in their own exclusive coach.
The Achievements:
So, what was the Camp all about? Was it just purely a vacation for the campers, or did something useful come out of it?
Judging entirely from the honest, written and oral, responses from the campers and from their parents and friends, one is left in no doubt what so ever, that the Kingswood Camp 1999 has been an unqualified resounding success. The instructors could visibly see and heartily feel the changes in the Campers as the days passed by.
The Camp aimed to provide a friendly and productive atmosphere for learning Islamic issues and manners. The location of the Camp certainly provided that tranquillity. The friendliness and approachability of the Administrators and the Instructors reinforced the atmosphere not only for learning, but also combining learning with fun, in an Islamic atmosphere. The girls had a unique opportunity to enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the country side and enjoy playing football on lovely grass.
The Camp planned for raising an awareness of religious issues. This was excellently achieved by the combined efforts of the Instructors. In fact, it went beyond that - some Campers got involved in intricate religious scholastic discussions with their Instructors well into the early hours of the morning, where The Qur'an, The Risala and other Islamic Books were frequently referred to.
The Camp hoped for participation in various sports activities and develop new sporting interests. This was undoubtedly achieved in that all Campers engaged in old and "new" sporting activities - archery, aeroball, nightline, wall climbing etc.
Quad Biking was particularly popular. Climbing the vertical and the overhanging walls were quite exacting. Almost every camper reached the top - ultimately.
The Camp intended to reinforce a lifestyle of good Islamic practices. In fact, the whole Camp's ethos was based on Islamic principles, and thus all the activities, timetable and extra-curricular activities were geared exactly in conforming to an Islamic lifestyle that can fit easily with the day to day life of a Shia in the western society. Thus, the Campers were shown first hand, and with their own experiences, that it is well within one's will, to live Islam in the West, without any compromises in one's faith.
To sit, chat, discuss and make new friends was bliss. The Camp endeavoured to expose the Campers to the issue of a healthy, balanced and tasty diet in their lives. Combined with this, the issues of alcohol, of smoking and of abuse and misuse of drugs, were exemplarily dealt with by the medical instructors.
The Camp wished to expose the Campers to their understanding of their Khoja roots. This was admirably explained in a one off presentation by the Guest Lecturer, Mulla Asgharali M M Jaffer, the President of the World Federation.
The Camp coveted to expose the Campers from different social, educational, family and cultural backgrounds into a common unit, and learn how to live, tolerate, respect and love each other, looking up to the elder ones and nurturing the younger ones. This has been achieved in leaping bounds, as testified by the camaraderie developed and the observed parting sadness.
The Camp desired to instil self reliance, both physically and emotionally, when one is away from the constraints of parents and family. The Camp simply excelled in this objective. Yes, all felt homesick in the early days, it was but natural. However, the warmth of the company soon melted the homesickness away, and each Camper started to portray their own individual personality. These qualities were then further developed by the instructors to help each camper on the path towards excellence.
The Camp aimed for development of self discipline and confidence. By any standards, this was achieved well beyond and above excellence. There was ample opportunity for the Campers to practice their personal development. For example: Timings had to be observed, Notes had to be taken, Criticisms had to be made and accepted, Sports had to be played, Salaat had to be offered on time, Qur'an and Duas had to be recited, Public Speaking had to be practised, Quizzes had to be answered, Debates had to be argued, Personal Hygiene had to be observed, Physical warm-ups had to be exercised; Facilities had to be shared, Conflicting Views of others had to be accommodated, Humility had to be practised, Tempers had to be cooled, Modesty had to be exercised, Pride had to be abandoned, Younger Members had to be helped and nurtured and Much More.
The behaviour of all the Campers, as observed by the Instructors and fellow campers, bear witness that every camper genuinely tried and succeeded tremendously in developing these disciplines - it is hoped this will continue well after Kingswood Residential Camp 1999.
Religious Topics Taught:
Qur'anic studies; Islamic Laws; Islamic Ideology; Islamic Personalities; Islamic Manners; Muslim Sects; Death and The Hereafter - hands-on Ghusl and Kafan; Each Camper had lessons on Sakaraat and learnt how to give Ghusl and Kafan.
Medical Topics Covered and Discussed:
Smoking; Alcohol, Abuse and Misuse of Drugs; AIDS; Thalassaemia; Diet; Dr. Tahera covered a wide range of medical and health topics with all the girls.
Other Topics Covered:
Khoja History; Euthanasia; Rights of Men and Women; Notes Taking During Studies; The Media; Public Speaking; Computer Skills, Internet Search, Web Page Design; There were over 120 computers at the camp. The campers had classes on computer skills, design of Web pages and internet access and search. They were also able to communicate with life beyond the boundary of Kingswood by e-mail.
Extra-curricular Activities:
These activities were held in the evenings, with both genders in the same hall, but segregated, and supervised by the male and female instructors.
Written Quizzes:
There were eighty questions of written quiz on logical and lateral thinking. 10 questions were given out each evening to be answered in 10 minutes. The highest score was 57 (out of a possible maximum of 80); a prize of £57 went to the winner, Sajida Jagani.
Oral Quiz:
This was an inter-gender quiz, each team comprising of a participant picked randomly from each of the 6 classes. The quiz each evening was run by Dr Mahmood. On some evenings, the campers had an opportunity to set the questions and run the quiz themselves as part of their training for leadership skills.
Debates:
An inter-gender debate, each team comprising of a participant picked randomly from each of the 6 classes. The topics were:
1) - Co-education is better than single gender education.
2) - Human organ donation is inhuman.
3) - Hijab (both, for men and women) is hindrance to progress of community.
4) - Early marriages are beneficial to the society.
The quality of debates was improved drastically by Dr Muhsin who chaired all the programmes and laid the ground rules. Dr Muhsin was the Chairman of Literary Section in Dar-es-Salaam, Professor of English Literature in Dar-es-Salaam University and is now lecturing in New York. His guidance in religious and literary matters was invaluable to the camp.
Public Speaking:
Pointers were highlighted on aspects of public speaking techniques, which campers had to practise during their debates etc. Each Camper took part in public speaking exercises. The photographs show just a few of the campers. Note how the decor and the setting was improved by the campers on their own initiative as days passed.
News Briefing:
A representative, picked randomly from each gender, had to compile at short notice a news briefing for the day from national newspapers. As the Sun's Shadows elongate, news papers are being studied for the news briefing and final preparations are in progress for the quiz and debate to take place after Namaaz. Others in the background are enjoying Basketball.
Sports Activities:
Each class was scheduled to participate in the following activities:
Aeroball, Archery, Basketball , Caving, Computing, Football, Go-Karts, Nightline, Orienteering, Quad Biking, Snorkelling, Swimming, Team Building, Wall Climbing.
A lot of interest was generated when Basketball Tournament was played.
Administrators:
There were two Administrators full time at the camp: Murtaza Datoo and Muhsin Dharamsi. These two were involved in the pre-stage, in-stage and post-stage of the entire running of the Camp. They were housed in the boys' camp in the adjoining building. Additional assistance specifically for the girls was provided by Bashirabai from Paris, who had accompanied the campers from Paris throughout their journey. She stayed with the lady instructors in the girls' camp.
Instructors:
These were very carefully selected by the organisers to impart a broad specialist spectrum of curriculum, topics, styles, knowledge and cross-culture experiences to the Campers. The medium of instruction was English. Besides taking formal classes, the instructors were also freely available, approachable and accessible to the campers and mentored the campers round the clock.
The instructors were:
1. Rubab-bai Master (Birmingham)
2. Shabnam-bai Mawji (Birmingham)
3. Dr Tahera-bai Bhojani-Lynch (Aylesbury)
4. Nargis-bai Panju (Hyderi)
5. Ismet-bai Kassam (Hyderi)
6. Tabassum-bai Bachoo (Stanmore)
Ismet-bai conducting a Tafseer Class with Fizza Group.
Shabnam-bai and Rubab-bai on finer points of Qur'an Recitation with the Khadija Group.
The Qur'an was widely used throughout the camp. Each camper was presented a copy, courtesy of donors from throughout Europe (for the Sawab of their Marhoomeen). The Qur'an had English translation and Tafseer by Mir Ahmed Ali. Besides being used extensively in Tafseer and Recitation Classes and for researching for debates and discussions, every day after Salatul Asr, the camp broke into study circles around the instructors for an hour or so.
Some classes were taken by male instructors from the boys' camp.
7. Dr Muhsin Alidina (New York)
8. Ali Akber Husein (Stanmore)
9. Dr Mahmood Datoo (Stanmore)
Dr Muhsin taught all the classes about different sects in Islam.
Ali Akber taught different Akhlaqui and Fiqhi topics to all the classes.
Guest Lecturer:
Mulla Asgharali M M Jaffer, President of The World Federation.
Murtaza Datoo, the Camp Administrator invited Mulla Asghar to address the Camp. Mulla Saheb gave an hour long insight into Khoja History. He told the campers to be proud of their origins as their fore-fathers had established great communities with all welfare amenities including hospitals, and schools and some had even sacrificed their lives for the sake of Islam. So we should not be ashamed of our ancestry but should keep their traditions alive and should try to Live Islam well beyond the boundaries of the camp, the madressa and the home. Guest Visitor:
Jaffer Dharamsi, President of Council of European Jamaats
Campers:
A total of 33 Campers from across 11 Jamaats attended the Camp.
The age of the Campers ranged from 12 to 20 years old.
Birmingham (3), Leicester (1), Dar-es-Salaam (2), Paris (5), Edmonton (1), Peterborough ( 2), Essex (4), Stanmore (8) , Hyderi (5), Vancouver (1) and Kampala (1).
All the activities of the girls' camp were carried out separately from the boys. During the evening extra-curricular activity, the campers from the boys' camp were in the same hall but seated separately. At the CoEJ specific request, all the instructors provided by the Camp Authorities for the girls' activities were female. The girls were grouped into three classes according to their ages. The classes were Khadija, Fizza and Sumayya. Each class had eleven Campers.
Room Allocations:
The living accommodation was in a separate wing, exclusively for the girls and their lady teachers. The wing was self contained with its own dining room, ablution areas and teachers' quarters. Each bedroom accommodated ten to twelve Campers in double bunk beds. The ablutions areas consisted of eight toilets and eight showers. Bed linen was provided by the Camp, and fresh linen and a free clothes wash was provided by the Management halfway through the stay.
The girls' wing had a block of rooms for the lady Instructors. This had their own toilet and two showers. However, the "staff" quarters soon became the students' space too as there was by then free traffic between the Instructors and the students.
A lot of thought and extreme care was exercised by the Administrators to divide the Campers into appropriate groups for their room allocations. Campers from different age groups, different family backgrounds, different Jamaats and different countries were purposely chosen to share a room to ensure a good mixture of social, age and educational cross-culture and experiences. This was done intentionally to allow the Campers to gain the maximum benefit of learning to live with others from different backgrounds.
Daily Timetable:
05.00 Namaz
07.30 - 08.00 Breakfast
08.15 - 09.00 Lesson 1
09.00 - 09.45 Lesson 2
09.45 - 10.30 Lesson 3
10.40 - 11.50 Activity 1
11.50 - 01.00 Activity 2
01.00 - 01.30 Lunch
02.00 - 03.30 Namaz and Qur'anic studies
03.40 - 04.50 Activity 3
04.50 - 06.00 Activity 4
06.00 - 06.50 Dinner
06.50 - 08.00 Activity 5
08.30 - 09.30 Quiz and Namaz
09.30 - 11.00 Extra Curricular Activities
Food:
Halal vegetarian food was served by the Camp catering staff. Soon however, the novelty wore off, and the Campers were craving for some meat and spices. Khoja cuisine was thus ordered from Birmingham, three times during the stay. Haji Gulambhai Kassam of Birmingham Jamaat did so well at this that soon his presence at the camp became synonymous with tasty meat dishes.
Copies of the Qur'an visible in the dining room even during breaks.
Acknowledgements:
The assistance of the following personnel and institutions is sincerely and gratefully acknowledged. Without their support, the Camp would not have been a success it was:
1) - The World Federation.
2) - The President and the Secretariat of The Council of European Jamaats.
3) - Birmingham Jamaat for all the support as detailed in this report.
4) - Wessex Jamaat for receiving the campers from Paris when they passed through Portsmouth, providing meals for them and facilitating praying of Salaat at Al Mahdi Centre.
5) - The Jamaats who publicised the camp and encouraged their youths to participate.
6) - The Parents for having the trust in CoEJ, responded to our call and sent their Children
7) - The donors and well wishers who subsidised the camp to make it accessible to the majority in the community.
8) - The instructors who gave their time and expertise free and well beyond the call of duty to nurture the campers.
9) - The campers, for their excellent behaviour, co-operation and positive attitude to all the activities and regulations of the Camp.
Closing Ceremony:
On the last night of the Camp, Monday, 23rd August, a closing session was held whereby dignitaries from UK Jamaats, and parents of the Campers were invited. Mohamed-bhai Alibhai, Vice President of the Council of European Jamaats attended and addressed the gathering. During the Closing Ceremony, quoting Imam Ali AS Rubab-bai Master appealed to the leaders of the community to help bring up the children for tomorrow, especially through camps like these. She expressed her satisfaction that the camp was run with great fun and within the bounds of Sharia. She suggested that the camp be an annual event and regretted that there were no such camps during her childhood.
A Camper from each of the six classes presented an aspect of the Camp activity to the visitors. The final debate and quiz sessions also took place. There was also a drama highlighting the lessons from the Camp, enacted and acted by the girl campers.
On the final night, the girls presenting a quiz which they developed themselves.
The session was followed by a BBQ in the open grounds, which in turn was followed by a display of fireworks.
Barbecue in session on the last night.
Mementoes:
The Council of European Jamaats presented each Camper with the following:
1) - A copy of The Qur'an with Commentary by Mir Ahmed Ali
2) - File Folder with notes ready punched for filing
3) - Pens
4) - Highlighters
5) - Toiletry Bag
6) - Toothbrush, Shaving Things, Face Towel, Nail Cutter
7) - School/College bag
8) - Academic Pocket Diary for the year 2000
9) - Certificate of Attendance
10) - A mounted copy of Group Photograph
Almost all of the activities were videod during the Camp, and this is being edited and will be available to the Campers at a nominal cost.
Feedback:
Each Camper was asked to fill out a Daily Assessment Form, giving their views, suggestions and criticisms on each aspect of the lecture, sports activity, extra curricular activity and the catering for the day. These forms were religiously collected and gone through by the Administrators and the Instructors on a daily basis.
The Administrators then used to meet with all the Instructors, daily, to take on board the suggestions, views, criticism of the Campers. Where appropriate, immediate action was taken to remedy any situation that arose from these daily feedback.
At the end of the Camp, each Camper was asked to fill another feedback questionnaire, which solicited their views on the Camp's activities and facilities as a whole, together with their views on the invited Instructors. This was essential for the Administrators to know so that improvements, adjustments and amendments can be incorporated for next year's planning.
Initial indications from the feedback are that the Camp has been a resounding success and every Camper found it thoroughly enjoyable and useful. The campers have made two specific suggestions for improvement for the next Camp. Firstly, the cuisine has to be altered to suit the Khoja palette. Secondly, the order of the activity/lecture has to be altered during the day, to obtain the maximum benefit from the respective activity/lecture.
A debriefing of all the Instructors was also conducted by the Administrators on their viewpoint of the whole Camp. All the suggestions, by the Campers and the Instructors, are being considered seriously and conscientiously.
Summer Camp 2000:
The planning for the Summer Camp 2000 began on the day when the Summer Camp 1999 ended. It is hoped to be held in August 2000. Exact dates and location will be announced when finalised.
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