Fulfill the dreams of the children of our lovely land

Disabled and disadvantaged children have always been hoping to get your help. They have little dreams in their big hearts. In order to fulfill such dreams and bring smile to their faces, we do not need to do a lot.

IAPSRS has always tried to make a clear connection between religious rituals and the existing social problems in the society to use such symbolic rituals in solving social problems. Therefore, during the Iʿtikāf (13th to 15th of Rajab) which is coinciding with the birth date of the first Imam of Shi’a Muslims, Imam Ali, the dreams of the disadvantaged, disabled, and unsupported children of the country are made to become true by the help of generous donors, making such ritual a collective worship. Kaaba Kariman ritual has been organized by IAPSRS since 2008.

Main goals of the project:

Several goals are followed in the “Ka’be-Kariman” project.

The primary goals of this project are regarding children and granting their wishes; and to provide a platform to empower those who have lost their dreams due to poverty and disease.

In summary:

• To value children’s dreams and wishes
• To convey compassion and love from the society to those who are in pain, the majority of which are children.
• To highlight the role of children in families by fulfilling their dreams that affect the society.

Goals concerning the society:

• To obtain social knowledge by analyzing the contents of children’s’ dreams and categorizing them
• To highlight the role and importance of children and their requests/needs in the society
• To guide the attention of the wealthier population of the society, in particular those who participate in the Islamic ritual “Itikaf” to the needs and achievable dreams of children which result from the social class difference in the society.
• To promote the spirit of cooperation in the society to fulfill the children’s dreams

Ritualistic goals

• To add active components to the “Itikaf” ritual, and guide participants of the ritual towards religious deeds that have more social impact such as helping those in need.

Implementation steps and details of the plan:

• Recognizing the poor and disadvantaged regions, hospitals in which disadvantaged children are hospitalized in.
• Building and labeling cardboard cubes, and asking children to write their wishes on forms labeled similarly as the cubes and putting each form in the corresponding cube.
• Registering the exact address and telephone of the participants.
• Writing the wishes in a website.
• Putting the screened wishes back into the cubes.
• Negotiating with mosque staff and identifying the more supportive staff.
• Organizing an introductory session for those who wish to share the wishes in the mosque.
• Distributing the cubes in the mosques during the seclusion ritual.
• Noting the cubes and wishes that have been fulfilled, and also registering the information of the person who has volunteered to fulfill the written wish.
• Reflecting the fulfilled and non-fulfilled wishes in the website.
• General announcement of the wishes until the holy day of “Mab’as”
• Celebrating the fulfillment of the wishes and asking philanthropists to participate in the celebration. In addition, traveling to some of the places where the children live and granting some of their wishes in person
• Delivering all the collected wishes to their owners
• Making a report of the implementation method of the project, the strengths and weaknesses
• Creating a list of the dos and don’ts of the project implementation
• Paying attention to and respecting the culture and beliefs of the locals in each region
• Disregarding fancy and unnecessary wishes such as owning a mobile phone, tablet and other wishes which may threaten children’s health and safety or encourage violent behavior among children such as toy guns
• Paying attention to children’s ego, pride and self-respect
• Paying attention to the benefactor’s intentions and guaranteeing responsible implementation of the plan and delivery of gifts
• Trying to fulfill all reasonable wishes without discrimination
• Paying attention to the social aspects of this project
• Preventing the formation of expectations within the children and their families by clearly explaining to them that this plan is only a ritual.