How did one Muslim community in New Zealand deal with the COVID-19 lockdown?

The Ethnic Communities Development Fund (ECDF) is available for projects that support ethnic communities to grow their skills, celebrate their culture and take part in society. The Fund is currently available for projects or activities that provide alternative means of staying socially connected, employment initiatives, and community resilience and recovery.

In January 2020 the Al-Manar Trust was approved a grant for a project called ‘Youth engagement through weekly soccer’. The Trust is a well-established non-profit Islamic organisation, which provides services to the Muslim community, both within the Auckland region and beyond.

Due to the Government's COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, weekly soccer has not been possible so the project could not go ahead as planned. Adapting to the situation, the Trust applied, and was granted approval under the new ECDF COVID-19 priorities, to redirect the grant to a new project that would still keep Muslim youth connected during lockdown and Ramadan.

The Al-Manar Trust is now putting the grant towards resources for youth online activities and competitions run through digital platforms like Zoom and Kahoot. This will allow youth within the Muslim community to stay connected during lockdown and Ramadan.

Check out the Ramadan programme in the video brought to you by some very enthusiastic Muslim youth!