
ACTNews, BANJUL
– Gambia is a country with a 95% Muslim population. In 2015, the country which
has 2.1 million inhabitants declared itself an Islamic Republic. Many Islamic
schools have been developed there for the local Muslim children to learn.
However, Gambia
has many humanitarian problems like other developing countries in Africa. In
addition to poverty and hunger, they also find it difficult to learn the Quran
due to the limited number of available Quran copies.
In response to
this, Aksi Cepat Tanggap (ACT) delivered around 500 Quran copies to Muslim
children in The Gambia. These new Quran copies were distributed to several Islamic
schools in the Gambian capital of Banjul at the beginning of Ramadan.
Firdaus Guritno
from ACT's Global Humanity Network explained that almost all children who
received the Quran copies came from poor families. Most of them did not have
their own Quran and used to use the school's available Quran copies in turns.
"We hope that
the Quran copy distribution can support their Quran learning and recitation, especially in the month of Ramadan, the time when reading the Qur'an is
rewarded immensely," said Firdaus, Thursday (4/7/2022).
This was not the
first Quran distribution that took place in the Gambia because, almost every year, donors
through ACT give away Quran copies to Gambian Muslims. "In 2021, 500 Quran
copies were distributed in Kanda City. In 2020, similar distribution benefitted
hundreds of students in Tallinding and Kanifing," concluded Firdaus. []