We are happy to inform you that RAMU “Umma” is building a mosque in Bakhmut (Donetsk region), by force of the local community. The project is funded with donations from all over Ukraine, and even some donations from abroad (from the people who once studied in Ukrainian Universities and maintain their Ukrainian acquaintances even after having left for their home countries).
We would also like to share with you the heartwarming story of this project. The thing is, the local community had been renting a building for their religious purposes for the lack of their own mosque. The rent was paid by the RAMU “Umma”. Yet in 2014, Russian occupation began and war broke out, and RAMU “Umma” had to redirect funds from a range of projects to helping the internally displaced persons. Thus, we no longer could afford paying the rent for the community in Bakhmut, and they had to move out.
Luckily, one Muslim family currently residing in Georgia, who still owned an old house in Bakhmut, offered the imam Alan Karipov to use if for the religious purposes free of charge, having only asked him that the utility bills be paid on time. Some time later, the community managed to raise enough funds for purchasing the building and the land from their hospitable Georgian hosts. The community insisted on paying for the premises (especially since the owner’s wife passed away recently), but the owner agreed only in case they agreed to accept a considerable discount.
Still, he never spent even that money on himself and donated it on behalf of his late wife to the cause of building a mosque in Georgia. Later, having gifted most of his late wife’s jewelry to relatives, he sold the rest of it and donated the money to build the mosque on his former property in Bakhmut.
As of today, the Bakhmut community completed the walls of the first floor of the mosque, along with the floor of the women’s hall. They are looking forward to completing the walls and the roof by the end of summer, so that the building is ready before the rainy season.
Still, there’s plenty of work for them later, too, with making the utility systems and renovation. Those are pleasant worries, and every community member is looking forward to bringing their skills and effort to it.
