RIYADH, 1 December 2004 — Sri Lanka is to have the first private nursing school in Colombo with the aid of the Kingdom-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB), according to former speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament and founder of the Islamic Center in Colombo, Mohamed Haniffa Mohamed.
“The IDB has given $180 million which is going to benefit a large number of Muslim girls who graduate from high school,” Mohamed, who was in transit at King Khalid International Airport, told Arab News yesterday.
“A large number of educated Muslim girls who would otherwise stay at home jobless will find decent jobs under the new program,” he noted.
“The proposed center will be located in the vicinity of Colombo’s General Hospital which could serve as a center for nursing practice,” Mohammed said, adding that a separate medical center will also be built to offer in-house training for the undergraduate nurses.
“Sri Lanka was the first non-Muslim country to benefit from the IDB for humanitarian projects. It has been offering scholarships to Muslim youths to help them become doctors, engineers and architects,” Mohamed noted.
So far, he said, more than 300 Muslim youths have become professionals through this scheme. He added that these professionals do help the Islamic Center in its social service activities as a gratitude to IDB for educating them in various fields.
Referring to the future programs of his center, Mohamed said plans are under way to set up an Islamic radio station in Colombo to create an understanding among all communities in the region.
The station, which will be called “Ummah FM”, will be initially in English, Tamil and Sinhalese and broadcast to the island and the Indian subcontinent.
He said his center will host the forthcoming international conference of the Muslim World League in Colombo in April next year.
“Already several heads of states have consented to attend the meeting,” the former speaker said.
Speaking about the present ethnic problems in the country, Mohamed said the people in the eastern parts of the island were undergoing great hardships due to improper Muslim leadership.
“Muslims in Sri Lanka should be united to work for their cause and we have to ensure our rights and privileges at a time when the government is trying to hold peace negotiations with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE),” Mohamed said.
He pointed out that the split in the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) indicated the insignificance of communal parties in Sri Lanka.
“We must learn to coexist with the other communities,” Mohamed added.
