ACTNews, JOMBANG - After completing their basic Quran education, usually
children in Catak Gayam Village, Mojowarno District, Jombang Regency, rarely
continue their education. This became a concern for Kiai Mashud Ahmad. In 2010,
he founded the Nurul Ahmadi Islamic Boarding School which is now better known
by the local community as the Gayam Children's Islamic Boarding School.
To be a student
in this institution, all it takes is consent from the parents to send their
children to live and study there. so that the child can study well. It never
requires the students to pay for tuition fees if they can’t pay.
"We don’t
force the parents to pay. If they can pay, they should pay. If they can’t,
that’s alright. The school will fulfill all the students’ needs from the moment
they wake up in the morning until they go to bed at night, from the moment they
enter this institution to the moment they graduate. They are welcome even if
they want to stay until they go to college,” said Ulil Absar, commonly called
Gus Ulil, the General Assistant of Nurul Ahmadi Islamic Boarding School on
Friday (1/15/2020).
Although about
half of the santris are economically underprivileged and study for free, the
activities in the Islamic boarding school are still running smoothly. “For
those who don't pay, the Kyai will strive to fulfill their needs. Don’t ask me
where the things to fulfill their needs come from. I am just an assistant. But
they are the followers of Allah. Never mind humans, even animals have their sustenance,
"said Gus Ulil.
At first, there
was only one santri, Now the school has 150 male and female santris. The school
accept secondary level students and teaches both religious and non-religious
sciences.
The students watch
television in their spare time. (ACTNews / Eko Ramdani)
However, the
boarding school buildings are getting too small to accommodate all the students
and staff. “We need to develop more buildings. The number of students continue
to grow, but we never build more boarding houses " Gus Ulil said.
Nurul Ahmadi
Islamic Boarding School also tries to meet the needs of the students as best as
possible. They try to always provide enough food for the students although they
sometimes run out of resources.
"Sometimes
our supplies run out. However, no matter what happens, the caretakers of this
school strive to never let the students go hungry even for a day. It’s common
for the caretakers of this school to incur some debts to fulfill the students’
needs, as long as they have three meals and two snacks a day," explained
Gus Ulil.
To support the
Islamic Boarding School, Global Wakaf - ACT sent packages of Waqf Rice and
boxes of Waqf Drinking Water to Nurul Ahmadi Islamic boarding school. Gus Ulil
was very grateful for these packages.
"Alhamdulillah,
they are very helpful. Here, any kind of assistance will be very useful and will
be used as well as possible. Food aid will never go to waste. In the future,
hopefully, there will continue to be assistance that reaches this school. We have
no permanent donors. So if anyone wants to donate, we really welcome," said
Gus Ulil. []