Firdaus scholarship beneficiaries get hostel facility

Firdaus Foundation for Social Services, an NGO for the Muslim community, has inaugurated a hostel for tertiary students who are beneficiaries of the Firdaus Scholarship programme.

The hostel facility, which is located at Madina, was constructed with support from Tanmiyat Humanitarian Foundation, a Sudan-based NGO, and other donors.

The facility has a library, computer laboratory, conference rooms and a mosque, and is expected to house 30 shortlisted students who qualify for the 2019/2020 academic year scholarship.

Established in 2006, the Ghanaian charity organisation has over the past 13 years provided scholarship opportunities for more than 200 students and the hostel is a means of housing students across various universities in Accra, including the University of Ghana, University of Professional Studies and the Islamic University.

Cost-saving

At the inauguration of the hostel at Madina last Saturday, the Director General of Firdaus Foundation, Sheikh Salisu Hussein Sualah, said the facility was to help save the cost of renting accommodation for its beneficiaries.

He said the inauguration of the project was a turning point in the organisation since it now had a property of its own which would help reduce the suffering they had to go through in renting apartments for its scholarship beneficiaries.

Sheikh Sualah indicated that over the past 13 years, the foundation had resorted to renting apartments to house beneficiaries, stating that,“we have been sleeping in one rented apartment or the other which was very expensive to fund. This project has come to wipe our tears.”

He revealed that although the organisation had embarked on similar projects in Kumasi, the Accra project nearly came to a standstill at a point due to insufficient funds and acknowledged the immense support from particularly, Tanmiyat Humanitarian Foundation and other project donors whose intervention helped to complete the project.

Scale up

Sheikh Sualah further indicated that sponsoring the entire scholarship project was difficult since Firdaus Foundation had to cater for students’ tuition fees, feeding, internet connectivity and stipend.

He noted that despite the challenges, the organisation was planning to scale up in other regions in order to offer more scholarships to brilliant, needy students within various Muslim communities.

The Country Director for Tanmiyat Humanitarian Foundation, Sheikh Khalid Ramadan, said the project was a holistic and special one since it was also designed to help beneficiaries acquire leadership skills beyond their education.

He further implored members of the Muslim community to join hands in ensuring that they helped the less privileged in the society, particularly in the field of education so they could contribute to the nation’s development.

The Director of the Firdaus Student’s Hostel project, Sheik Ahmed Mahmoud, said the project was designed to help deprived, brilliant Muslim youth to further their tertiary education.