Senior day
Report of Activities by MCF
On December 1, 2018, the Muslim Community of Folsom (MCF) hosted a Senior’s Day, a Muslim American Society Social Service Foundation (MAS-SSF) Al-Afia for Seniors Program. Alhamdulillah, there was an amazing turnout of around 70 people. The event started off with a Quran recitation from Surah Isra (Ayah 23-28) by Hafiza Zainab Mohammad and translation by Hafiz Tahir Saied. Afterward, Imam Aamir Nazir explained these Ayahs and highlighted the role and responsibilities of seniors. Then the MCF president, Br. Abdul Khader, welcomed all the participants.
After lunch, Sr. Gulshan Yusufzai, Executive Director of MAS-SSF, gave a brief overview of MAS-SSF and expressed gratitude to MCF’s leadership and Senior group. She went on further to welcome collaborative efforts with the MCF senior group for the upcoming year. MAS-SSF is a non-profit that aims to aid Families at large and the Muslim community in particular with their social service needs. To learn more, please visit www.mas-ssf .org.
Then, Br. Abdul Razack, Coordinator of the MCF Senior group, talked about its goals, objectives, and activities. Afterwards, Sr. Anjum Keval, Program Manager of the Al-Afia for Seniors program, gave a brief overview of short term and long-term goals. MAS-SSF is working towards developing a community-based adult day program. The program will offer services and activities focusing on keeping seniors active and involved in the community to promote positive mental health and well-being. This program will be part of MAS-SSF’s efforts to prevent depression, anxiety, isolation, and feelings of helplessness associated with aging. Later, three guest speakers from the MCF Senior group shared their life experiences. Br. Amanullah Khan used to work in the Bay Area and had a bad experience with medical insurance after retirement. Likewise, Br. Hussain Ghori had health insurance problems, and he started feeling more “homely” after joining the MCF Senior group. Br. Lother Schultz, an army veteran, reverted to Islam in 2016. At one point in his life, he experienced fraud by an individual falsely identified as the IRS and lost a lot of money.
After a short break for Dhuhr prayer, Teresa Ogan, California Health Collaborative, facilitated the needs assessment portion in which she asked the seniors for input on their needs and challenges and how they could be offered help. The needs assessment helped to identify the needs of our seniors in the community with the top three needs being transportation, social activities and educational. After Asr prayer, there were games for all the seniors, such as a memory game, word search, and bingo, followed by a raffle with various prizes.
MAS-SSF will be collaborating with the MCF senior group to develop solutions for the top three needs as identified in the needs assessment. MAS-SSF will be piloting this effort with the MCF senior group in the upcoming year. The next Senior Day will be held in Spring 2019. Please visit www.mas-ssf.org for more information.
