Alhamdulilah! The Valley Muslim Community Foundation (VMCF) is almost done with the renovations needed to create three classrooms at the VMCF Center at Old Depot Lane. The new classrooms will be located on the lower level of the building. Since December 5th, when the construction began, VMCF has raised $27,400 from generous donors in the community to renovate this new space, which is more than half of the required costs. The two teams, North Mountain Contracting, owned by Hamza Higgie, and SAM Solutions, owned by Aissam Karimi and team of Jawan Ismail and Nasir Abdeh, have been working hard, knocking down walls, putting up new drywall, refinishing flooring, painting and preparing the space in general as a classroom environment. The work is expected to finish in the next few weeks and be available for Ramadan activities, Inshallah Over the last 25 years there have been many adults in our community that have devoted their time and compassion to teaching the language of the Quran and Islamic Tarbiyah studies to children in our community. An Islamic school was established and initially supported financially by Hajj Awad Dames and his family. Dr. Abdul Rahman Rabie was the main administrator for many years with the help of many volunteers. As the community grew in size, it became necessary to establish another Islamic center to serve the community. In the last few years, the Islamic school has had many temporary homes such as at the old Al-Akram mosque and on the EMU campus. There will now be a permanent classroom space available for all the different classes that our community has to offer! One of the characteristics of Harrisonburg is that it is home to Muslims of many ethnicities from all over the Ummah that value Islamic education and are deeply rooted in family principles and values. The VMCF classroom space is designed to create a school environment that kids associate with learning where Islamic values and study of the Quran will be taught. With Allah’s guidance and help, Inshallah, establishing this classroom space will create a suitable and supportive environment for raising generations of children with strong, virtuous hands that spread goodness and exemplify the values of our Muslim communities for Ramadan activities, Inshallah.