AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): A social plan in Britain, with the aim of supporting the religious and cultural needs of Muslim children under guardianship, has distributed packages including the Holy Quran, prayer mats, and other religious items and has called for more support to expand these services.
The "Muslim Children in Care" project has so far distributed more than 1,500 prayer packages among children under the support of local councils including Hillingdon, Warwickshire, Leeds, and Hartlepool. This organization is now trying to provide more religious resources for children in the social care system by collecting financial aid.
This plan was launched by "T. Jiva," a social worker with nearly 30 years of experience in the field of social services. She announced that this activity took shape after social workers and foster families sought guidance from her about how to support the religious needs of Muslim children, including during Ramadan and performing acts of worship.
Jiva, referring to the conditions of some Muslim children under guardianship, said many teenagers who enter Britain alone may live in families with different religious beliefs. According to her, for children who have left their environment due to migration, war, or the loss of family members and their living environment, maintaining connection with faith and religious identity can play an important role in their sense of security and belonging.
This social activist emphasized that the goal of this program is not merely the temporary distribution of gifts on religious occasions but the creation of local centers, preferably in mosques, for the permanent access of social workers and children to the Quran, prayer mats, prayer beads, and other religious resources.
According to this organization's review of responses received from local institutions, at least 4,496 Muslim children were placed in foster families in 2024. Jiva believes the responsibility for providing the cultural and religious needs of these children should not rest solely on the shoulders of social workers who may not have specialized familiarity with Islam and Muslim communities.
She also called on mosques and Islamic organizations to play a more active role in supporting these children and emphasized that the provision of religious resources must continue throughout the year so that children who enter the care system in the interval between religious occasions also benefit from these supports.
**************
End/ 345E
