by Reem Abdelsalam (GUST student)

Every Saturday, Sumaya Ghoniem sees young children gain self-confidence and important lessons in life like polite speech and fewer playground fights.

Her most important contribution to Kuwait society was getting involved in charity work helping young children discover and develop themselves. She does that by introducing new hobbies for the girls such as acting, singing, drawing, storytelling, etc.

Sumaya thinks this work will help the girls take responsibility in the future because they are easily influenced. It will help them raise their children properly and maintain the love for charity work and expand it in the future.

What made Sumaya get involved in charity work, and specifically in mosques, is her friend Omnia. She is the one who encouraged her to join the mosque as a student at first. Secondly comes her teachers, she saw the vision of their devotion to giving and not worrying about getting something in return.

Sumaya is motivated by the effect of her work on children because they are easily influenced. She always likes to keep a goal around and take responsibilities towards things.

Before Sumaya become a teacher at the mosque she was a student at first. Sumaya said there are two people she admires the most, “My friend Nour, is one of the people I admire. She memorized the Quran and is now able to teach it to other people and she is still continuing to do her best. I adore her enthusiasm and insistence and she always motivate me in case I am lazy. The second person I admire is Ms. Najla, she was the first teacher to teach me in the mosque. She was always there for me and her way of teaching is very beautiful. Not only that she is also a mother of five children, but she always gave her time and effort. The most important lesson I have learned from this work is that volunteering, caring and educating people is a blessing that I can see in everything I do in my life.”

One of her responsibilities is to organize open days for the children. So last Saturday, she organized an environmental day where she asked the children to bring unwanted bottle waters or tissue boxes so, they can recycle them into something useful. The children liked the idea and made pen holders out of the bottles and tissue boxes that looked like monsters. This teaches them how to care about the environment and keep it clean.