Community Projects and Engagement

• Mercy Mission, a registered charity which aims to encourage Muslims to live out Islam through positive community action, is piloting a ‘Cancer Buddy’ project.  If successful this may be extended to the Non-Muslim community.  Having recruited a team of volunteers it will train them to offer a special patient advocacy service to Muslim patients diagnosed with Cancer in one of the main London Hospitals.  Volunteers will free up an hour per week to sit with patients and talk through any concerns that they have socially, medically or spiritually.  Volunteers act as a support for the patient to the healthcare staff giving people a clear voice at a time of distress.
• Doris Richards, a member of EAPPI, a group that aims to bring internationals to the West Bank for 4-6 month stints so that they can experience life under occupation and protect vulnerable communities, gave a picture presentation to a largely non-Muslim audience in Sutton on Friday 12th November.  Hosted by Sutton for Peace and Justice, the group offer a powerful example that the Muslim Community can sit up and take notice of.  The Question and Answer session that followed gave an indication of the great awareness that attendees had of the reality of the conflict.  With work like this there remains hope for the Muslim community that Muslims and non-Muslims can indeed work together to achieve justice.