The House of Charity is a nonprofit organization which brings children from third world countries to the United States and houses them for a few months so they can get cheaper plastic surgery than what is availiable in their homeland. These kids have been shamed their whole lives because of their disabilities or looks. We are trying to give them a chance to a better, new life so they can feel what I feel; feel what it is to be a kid and have fun with friends and go out and enjoy life. They are not able to do that with their problems, so by donating to this charity, we can encourage more kids to come get surgery done.

Because the organization is located in a small neighborhood in Houston, not many people know of the House of Charity and their goals and accomplishments. By teaching people about it and encouraging them to take part in helping the kids, we help improve the lives of the unfortunate children in situations we can’t even imagine. If the organization became well-known, the local government might step in and help just as it helps the other big foundations in America. Their help would increase the number of operations done in lesser amounts of time. Another group of people involved in taking another step towards helping the children would be doctors in other countries where the children come from. By educating and training more doctors to perform such types of constructive plastic surgeries, more children would receive medical attention instead of only a few at a time. The last main group of people would obviously be the people of our society. By reducing the amount of arrogance we have about the House of Charity, we can all get together to make a difference in the childrens’ lives, because every penny counts. We do have a plan to extend this project next year and hopefully make it larger and even more successful. We plan on hosting it at a location better fit for numerous religions and types of people. As we are promoting diversity, it would be best to also help other charities here in the Houston area which pertain to different social groups. We feel we have achieved our goal of breaking the invisible wall between the different sects of Muslims in our community, which often holds us back to reaching out and helping others.

our main goal for the carnival had been to help the children in the House of Charity. Since it is not funded by the government, they work hard to earn money that would be donated for surgical procedures which gives them a brighter future. Since the kids are different because of deformity in their faces or limbs which were caused by accidents, fires, or other reasons, we wanted people to reach out generously and try to help improve their lives rather than turning away from them with disgusted looks and heavy hearts. The children arrive from different countries across the globe to the United States in order to be ensured proper attention for their medical needs. By hosting this carnival we wanted to get the community together to recognized the needs of other brothers and sisters who come to live temporarily in Houston. By keeping the carnival at Masjid Attaqwa, we were able to have a diverse group of people come and enjoy it in an Islamic environment. In the future however, we would like to host the carnival at a more public venue in order to get the support from other members of the community. Since the theme of our carnival focused on kids, we thought this would be a good chance for other kids to give back to the community. We had more than 20 volunteers ranging from ages 5-18, along with the help of our parents. The volunteers were recruited based on the will to work and responsibility. Not only did kids from our MSA volunteer, but also from other MSA’s in the Greater Houston Area, University of Houston, HCC, along with various middle and elementary schools. All the volunteers were expected to handle their designated game booths which included food stall, ticket stand, and many different games. We were able to conduct a safe and enjoyable carnival and raised a total of $909.50. we feel the carnival went very well and better than we could have ever imagined. However, we did have a rocky road to achieving our goal. Our main problem was the budget, due to our low MSA treasury, but still we pitched in and were able to buy all the necessities. Along with the budget, the tables we were planning on renting were costing more than one hundred dollars. Thanks to Nu Trend, we were able to use the tables for free! Another big concern for us was the public. How were we supposed to get word out about our carnival? After having fliers donated to us, we were able to send them out to various Mosques, Islamic Schools, and other locations in the Houston Area including Dar-Ul-Aqram, Makkah Masjid, Al-Noor, and Imaan Academy. Along with the fliers, were advertised frequently on Radio Naya Andaaz and Facebook.

We are planning to have another carnival in the spring of 2009, so others can help by donating food, games, books and gifts for the kids, or even money. We also need a number of volunteers for the large crowd we are expected to have at our second annual carnival.