Trustees’ Annual Report
Year 2025
Muslim Association of Coleraine 1, Gateside Business park Gateside Road Coleraine BT52 2RE
NIC Number: Financial Year: 1[st] January 2025– 31[st] December 2025
Trustees: Dr Azmatullah Khan, Dr Hanif Khan, Dr Jaweed Wali
Purposes of Charity: The purpose of the charity is to offer support to all muslims living in the area by providing pastoral care, religious guidance, regular worship and social networking. The charity also promotes multifaith and multi-cultural cooperation and understanding, with all other faiths and cultures in the area.
Constitution of Charity
Charity is governed by elected and nominated members, and follows the constitution which was agreed and established, when the charity came into being.
As permanent members (about 25) are few, the method of nomination has been more feasible and effective, and agreeable to all members - permanent and non-permanent. A large number of members are non permanent, and are mainly visiting students at the local University, and temporary doctors at the local hospital.
Summary and Description of Charity Activities :
The charity provides a central place for muslims to come together and meet for worship, social and cultural events, and learning. It holds regular worship every day and particularly on Fridays, and is the only place of worship for muslims in the area. There is a large attendance at Friday Prayers, of about 60 persons. The centre provides a place where all can gather in congregation.
The centre runs regular classes for children at weekends, teaching them Islamic and comparative religious education, to help prepare them with better understanding of their own religion, and also of other religions.
The centre arranges frequent excursions for children to places of interests like museums, leisure activities and field trips, and movies and theatre plays.
The centre has Child protection Policies and Guidelines in place and all members are made aware of these. Children at all times are accompanied by their parent/parents, and never left unattended by their parents at any time. Two of the Volunteer teachers involved in teaching have completed Access Ni Checks, to ensure safety and protection of children attending the Centre
Women meet regularly every week, for group learning, to socialise, and to discuss social and family issues, helping each other to offer support and to resolve these issues.
The Religious leader of the charity, has been invited by various religious groups to give talks on Islam, with a view to creating common understanding, harmony and tolerance.
In preparing this report, we, the Trustees confirm that we have given Regard to commission’s Public Benefit requirement statutory guidance.
As outlined in the Statement of Accounts, the balance in our Bank Account has always been in surplus, and has never gone into deficit at any stage.
The Charity has never had the need to borrow any funds from anyone.
All the funding is through voluntary donations by members. There is no fixed membership fee, and members are left with the choice to make any donations they may like. However, the total donations every year, are quite sufficient, and in fact somewhat surplus to total expenses. There is always a positive balance at the end of each financial year.
As charity trustees, we continually monitor accountability of all executive committee members and ensure good governance is implemented. We are well versed with child protection guidelines, and ensure that the Child Protection Policy is referred to and clearly understood by all volunteers who come in contact with children at our premises.
Upkeep, maintenance and any necessary refurbishments of the Centre are executed regularly, to ensure the centre provides a safe and secure environment to all visitors.
The charity works closely with multi-faith organisations and schools to bring together children of different faiths to interact with each other, to help our children learn and understand about each other’s faiths. Visits to places of worships of other faith are to be planned, for our children, to help them to learn about other faiths in the community.
The Charity works closely with The Local Council to help asylum seekers and refugees, assisting and guiding them, and providing them with social and religious support
The charity strives to continually improve the provision of services to its community, and has recently refurbished the premises to meet increasing demands from higher numbers of attendances. The cost of these refurbishments was through donations by individual members. The charity does not rely upon any grants from the Council or from Government agencies, and aims to raise it sown funds through membership donations alone.
The charity has never had to suffer any deficits in its accounts, and in fact, the account has always been in credit.
This is sufficient proof that all the members are appreciative of the services provided by the Centre, and in return they are quite happy to make generous voluntary contributions.
Over the next year, The charity plans to establish greater collaboration with other similar Muslim charities around the Province of Northern Ireland, and also to develop and reinforce links with all other faiths.
Signed on behalf of all Trustees.
Dr Azmatullah Khan
Date: 01 May 2025