Students From QF Schools Embark on a Ramadan Journey of Good Deeds

Illustrating and celebrating the spirit of Ramadan amid the unprecedented circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing, and the recent transition to remote learning, students at Qatar Foundation schools are participating in a program that promotes the importance of doing good deeds in society.

Ramadan Journey is an initiative launched by the Academic Affairs Department within Qatar Foundation’s Pre-University Education (PUE), designed to encourage school students from all grades to perform acts of kindness over the course of 30 days during Ramadan.

Students engage with innovative and community-minded Ramadan tasks divided into three themes – each spanning a 10-day period - that reflect the virtues and values of the Holy Month: Mercy, Forgiveness, and Emancipation from Fire, all of which they can perform from their homes.

Hissa Al-Kubaisi, Academic Affairs’ Co-Curriculum Program Manager, PUE, said: “In a time of social distancing, we thought of launching the Ramadan Journey program with a set of selected activities that aim to strengthen the curriculum and combine the educational material and social practices that reflect the values and virtues of Islam during the Holy Month.

“We designed these activities to stimulate Qatar Foundation students’ thinking skills, including their sense of discovery, communication, and creativity. We believe that such activities bring both success and pleasure to the students, nurture compassion within their characters, and give them the desire to help others.

“We are very pleased with the high engagement we have seen via the schools’ social media platforms, and this will motivate us to continue doing such programs next year in a new format.”

Activities performed through Ramadan Journey include students calling their grandparents and family members to check on their wellbeing and send Ramadan greetings; designing and making their own savings funds or piggybanks to collect donations for charities that help people in need; creating Ramadan Suitcases that show their appreciation for workers; and developing artwork that shows their appreciation for those working in fields such as healthcare and the voluntary sector.

The students are asked to submit their contributions to their Islamic Studies teachers at the end of each 10-day period, with the names of all the participants and their accomplishments being posted on each school’s social media platform. The initiation also ensures parents can be involved in the activities.

Maha Al Romaihi, Director of Tariq Bin Ziad School – one of the schools that comes under the umbrella of PUE - said: “In these unusual times, we aim to instill good values and good Muslim practices in our students through activities such as this, and prove that kindness and good deeds can be done under any circumstances – they may even be especially meaningful during such crises.

“We admire the idea behind the initiative by Qatar Foundation’s PUE Academic Affairs Department and are proud as a school of our staff and students for the enthusiasm and willingness they are showing to spread goodness in the society. We believe part of our duty as educators is to plant seeds of kindness within our students”.  

The initiative is also designed to simplify the teachings of Islam for school students and motivate them to reflect these teachings in their lives, as well as fostering a sense of excitement through learning during Ramadan. With parents’ support, ideas that have already emerged through Ramadan Journey include  distributing goods for people in need through the online systems of charitable organizations, including food, toys and money; and students transferring the equivalent of the money they have saved in their piggybanks to charity.