The Program Manager of Zakat Foundation (ZF) of America in Ghana, Mr. Habibu Abubakar has intimated that his outfit intends to charitably assist the vulnerable and the less privileged persons living in the Muslim communities in Ghana particularly, those of Kumasi and its adjoining communities.

According to him, ZF of America, the Chicago –based international charitable Islamic Non-Governmental Organization was founded in 2001, and operates in other African countries and other parts of the globe in order to bring relief to under privilege Muslims communities around the world.

The Ghana office of ZF is located in Kumasi because of the heterogeneous nature of the city which informs sitting the office location in the second largest city of Ghana. When probed further, he indicated that the Ashanti Region in general and Kumasi in particular serves as the melting point of Muslims from other parts of the country and the Sub-Sahara Africa especially The ECOWAS member countries.

When I quizzed him on the specific areas of interest that their charitable services gives to their beneficiaries, the humble looking and well-articulated Habib catalogued a long list of activities of which include emergency relief services, education support, support to orphans and orphanages, health care and post- disaster rehabilitation among others

Mr. Habibu Abubakar, Made these known to the Ghana’s Information Services department (ISD) Reporter in Accra, at this year’s Muslims EIdul Adha celebration as part of his agenda as the newly appointed Programmes Manager of the foundation.

The optimistic Program Manager also indicated that his main pre-occupation which is also the vision of ZF was to fashion- out sustainable livelihood programs which will completely eradicate poverty in the destitute Muslims communities in country.

According to him when the society and its peoples are empowered, it enhances their socio-cultural and economic fortune which ultimately leads to improved lifestyles.

This he further supported his claim by citing the Former United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Mr. Kofi Annan’s admonishing to the world leaders at this year’s UN general assembly, by saying that the world should now move away from given charitable aids to the poorer nations to sustainable supports packages, He reminded.

Finally, he said the ZF is different from other charitable Muslims organizations because of its uniquely well-structured administrative centralized system of management which draws its funds from the benevolent wealthy Muslims in the US and other corporate institutions around the world.

Meanwhile, Habib is a trained and professional fellow in governance and sustainable development. He has 13 years of progressive experience and specific know-how in project preparation and management, planning, development management, local government and decentralization, his other expertise are in the areas of poverty studies and assessment and holds MSC in governance and Leadership at the cape coast University in Ghana.

The principle of Zakat was drawn from the inspiration of the Holy Quran -" - Surah al-Insan 8-9 which stated that "They feed with food--despite their own desire for it-- the indigent, and the orphan and the captive (saying): ‘We feed you purely for the sake of God. We desire no reward from you, nor thankfulness.