Riyadh: Hidayah Foundation Hosts Unique Parenting Workshop
by P A Hameed Padubidri
Daijiworld Media Network—Riyadh

Riyadh, Jan 3: A unique parenting programme called ‘Parent and Children’s Workshop’ was held at Mastashar Auditorium, near King Fahad Stadium, Riyadh, on Friday December 31.

The Hidayah Foundation (HF)-Riyadh unit, which is a Mangalorean based socio-cerebral and educational organization, organized this programme for the first time in the Kingdom. This was held after computing the results of several surveys conducted in and around Mangalore on parental responsibilities.

Addressing the audience, Khasim Ahmed, pioneer of the Foundation, said in his introduction talk, “Hidayah Foundation has been on the vanguard of unearthing certain problems that the Muslim community is facing in our region; the most recent issue is the lack of parenting skills and responsibilities that needs to be properly addressed both in gulf countries and back in home town.”

He continued, “The recent study conducted after a series of parenting programs in our districts shows that our Muslim mothers are really devoid of parenting techniques and proper guidance to raise their children and struggling hard without getting any solutions. Most fathers are working abroad and in their absence, the mothers are not trained to bring up their children and as a result, in many cases children are getting spoiled with the accessibility to mobile phones and other conveniences being provided by their parents at early ages in villages and cities. The situation of parents in the Gulf is more complicated.”
 
The debate-type programme had various resource persons like scholars, professors, audiologists, speech therapists, and school heads. Parents’ and children’s sessions of events were held in parallel and the children were divided into three different age groups.  The first group had children of 3-6 years and activities were puzzles, indoor games, general quiz, and drawing competition.
 
The second group consisted of children of 7-11 years. General knowledge, Islamic quiz, memory enhancement, group discussion and presenting skills were organized for this age group. The third group comprised of teens from 12 years onwards for whom the evaluation of IQ levels, memory enhancement, presentation skills, group discussion, and career guidance were carried out.

Dr Syed Hamid, principal, Jubail International Indian School, national award winner and counselor of department of educational psychology-NCERT, New Delhi;  Dr Feroz Mulla, vice-principal, Al Yasmin International School-Riyadh, Salma Nazeer, principal, Taqwa International School-Riyadh,  Omer Rao, senior consultant and speaker, and Sameera Fauzi, audiologist and speech therapist, took part as the key resource persons on the occasion.
 
The Foundation had recently organized an exclusive educational conference in Mangalore that was attended by a large number of parents and students especially teenagers. Many aspects of education, particularly education of Muslims, was highlighted with special attention to the issue of parenting and its practical problems.

The experts provided tips to parents and video footage of parenting talks made by resource persons in the parenting programme held in Mangalore were also shown occasionally. Dr Syed Hamid had conducted a session on career guidance for both parents and teenagers.

C M Kunhi and Suhana Travels, Mangalore, were the main sponsors of the event. Prizes were distributed to all the children and teen winners who participated in various events on the occasion.

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