This week we're glad to welcome Abdirahman Farah from Somalia to our office. Brother Abdi is working at the Somalia president's office in Disability Affairs. We gave him a Braille Quran as well as a book of Hadith . We also took him on a visit to the Malaysian Association for the Blind and the national council for the Blind. He had a tour of the library, the Braille printing unit with the thermoform machine , the low vision center and the vocational training center.

Insha Allah the new National Agency for persons with disabilities in Somalia will benefit from his experience here.

Our Braille Qurans have arrived in Gaza ! There are 18,000 visually impaired people in Gaza ( injuries from Israeli attacks , genetics and lack of medicine for eye diseases) and due to the seige they are unable to get Braille paper or embossing machines to make Braille books. Thousands of people need the Quran in Braille . One year ago AlFitrah Foundation Braille Quran Initiative was asked if we could provide 100 Braille Qurans for the blind in Gaza. Its taken a long time but alhamdulillah yesterday I heard good news and I was sent this photo and it made my heart sing. Most of the Braille Qurans were sponsored by Muslims in Singapore through Sani Hamid. May Allah bless the donors and all who helped .

Yusuf Aslam, a 7-year-old boy from Luton, England has finished memorising the Qur’an aged 7. He follows in the footsteps of his older sister Maariya who also memorised the Qur’an two years ago at the same age. It took him just over two years to memorise all 114 chapters of the book of Allah.

Brother Sabri in the UK is a sighted Quran teacher but he is keen to learn the Quran in Braille so that he can also teach the blind. We have put him in touch with a blind hafidz who is willing to teach him by phone using the Quraanic Braille primer we posted to him last week. May Allah bless his efforts and make it easy for him.

Maulana Nawaz has successfully been teaching the blind to read the Quran for several years by cell phone. When he receives any request he sends them a Braille Quraanic Primer by post then he starts teaching. (Braille Primers teach the basics like the Arabic alphabet and tajweed) Alhamdulillah AlFitrah Foundation provided him two sets of Braille Qurans and 20 copies of Braille Primers.

We have sent 250 Braille primers and 50 Braille Qurans to India so far. If you'd like to help our efforts in India and other places you can sponsor the cost of a primer( RM50/ USD12) or a Braille Quran ( RM250/ USD60) at www.alfitrah.net MBB 5-64324-604245 AlFitrah Foundation.