In his historic address to the IAAAE (International Association of Ahmadi Architects and Engineers), His Holiness (aba) referred directly to world events and how members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and the IAAAE itself need to be ready to rebuild the world and bring equity, justice, fairness and peace to the world. Read on to hear from IAAAE workers on what they do and how His Holiness (aba) inspires them.
Abdul Rafay Zafar, IAAAE Europe Water for Life Chairman
‘My responsibility is to look after all the water projects in Africa, together with my team. We provided water to over 1 million people from 2020-2021. We…help people in Africa in remote villages and irrespective of faith, religion and background. However, if you do work when some Ahmadis are present, they’re really emotional because the Khalifah has sent us,…and they didn’t even have the chance to see him and they are so emotional because of how much [His Holiness] cares about them. He oversees all of our projects and has got great interest in every project that we undertake. As you’ve seen in the symposium today, water has been talked about extensively. We have always had guidance from [His Holiness] on our projects and on how we can improve ourselves.’
Hasan Muhammad Saleh, Architect, Ghana
‘I have had the opportunity to design a number of structures for the Jama’at, and in terms of progress, it is really interesting that over the last few years, the Jama’at has seen a lot of infrastructure development. I started with the MTA Ghana Studios, which is one of the state-of-the-art studios in Ghana right now – not just within the Jama’at but in the whole of the country – and I was very proud to be a part of that. I have also been involved in some way or another in the wells that have been drilled in some of the communities with regards to creating opportunities for rural communities to have access to water. [His Holiness] has pointed us in the direction of what could possibly be a panacea to any eventualities. We all pray that we do not find ourselves in the situation where the world is at war, but if it does happen, he has given us the task that we should put ourselves in the position where we would be a solution to how we would be able to pick up the pieces.’
Munir Hadi Saeed, IAAAE Ghana Chairman
‘It has been 10 years since we started off in Ghana. We started of with just one single village and then we’ve been through a lot. We’ve had ‘Water for Life’ and we’ve had ‘Model Village’ projects. I can confidently say we have impacted tens of thousands of people through these interventions with these water solutions and all of that…We do not pray for war, but in case there is a war, everyone will now look towards Africa because we will be the least caught up in that. Now what we need to do as IAAAE is to find a way to bridging a gap between the haves and the have-nots. And for IAAAE, it is the time to work harder than we have worked in the past to make sure we are achieving that – taking people out of poverty.’
Muhammad Akram Ahmedi, IAAAE Europe Chairman
‘When our present Khalifah was elected to his exalted position, he told us that we should be looking at development works for the poor people of the world, and that’s where our direction has taken us since his election. And now you see today that he has mentioned that we need to look at the implication of nuclear war and how IAAAE, with its expertise, can start looking, for example, on providing low-scale housing and bunkers for humanity in a cheap manner. So our direction will now return towards that, and we hope in the next few years we have solutions on how we can provide that.’
Add Comment