On Friday, November 20, 2015, the United Muslim Foundation (UMF) donated $1,000 to Seminole High School. Half of the donation goes to Seminole High’s food pantry, and the other half is dedicated to the school’s literacy program.

Last Friday, Mrs. Masuma Virji, co-founder of the organization, visited Seminole High to present the check to administration. The UMF was founded in December 2003, and has been helping out the communities of Lake Mary and the surrounding areas since the organization was started.

Originally, Virji contacted Mrs. Aliya Lyons, head of the literacy council at SHS and member of the UMF, in late September and said that the UMF was purchasing items useful for the literacy initiative at Seminole, such as pencils, books, and other supplies. However, Lyons asked Virji for a monetary donation instead, which is much more useful because rather than items that may or may not be used by the literacy program, the literacy council could use the money that would have been spent on those items instead to buy supplies that they know they would use.

In response, Virji said that she would need to talk to the board of the organization to determine whether they could donate such a large sum. On November 19, Virji emailed Lyons, saying that the UMF would like to donate $1,000 towards Seminole’s food pantry and literacy initiative.

“It’s gonna be a huge, huge help,” says Lyons. “I can’t express how much this is going to help out with so many things that we have for our literacy council that we’ve been wanting to do, but sometimes, the good ideas get put on hold because of things that need to be approved, and funds that are set aside for [other] initiatives[…] Usually, the literacy council gets money from the School Advisory Committee (SAC), but this year, we didn’t receive any funds from the SAC, so [we’ll] definitely benefit from this.”

The reason why the UMF shows such a passion towards Seminole’s beneficent programs is that the group has developed like-minded programs that build upon our guiding principles of unity, education, and community service.

The UMF has their own literacy program, called Every Child Reading Ahead, or ECRA. It was said that the first word revealed to Islam’s founder, the prophet Muhammad, was read, which in Arabic is pronounced as ‘Ecra,’ like the program the UMF has developed.

Other than the ECRA program, the UMF also organizes many other charity and community service events, even coordinating with clubs such as the Interact club at our school.

“I love [being a part of this community]. It’s my passion, something I find very fulfilling. It’s something that I wake up and I get excited about the work we do, because there’s so much potential for growth, so much need in the community, that can be filled in the work that we do,” says Virji.
Seminole and its students give many thanks to the United Muslim Foundation for its generous donation. To learn more about the organization, visit their website at: www.unitedmuslimfoundation.org.