As’salaam alaikum (peace be upon you):

Since announcing MAPS’ comprehensive response to COVID-19 on March 15, and creating a COVID-19 Task force, we have worked hard to take appropriate action during this unprecedented crisis. Let me take this opportunity to give you an update on our response in the last week.

Religious Services

• As announced before, Jumuah (Friday congregational prayer) is suspended. Instead, we have a weekly Online Khutbah on Fridays at 1PM (followed by regular 4 Rakah/cycles of Dhuhr prayer at home). You can virtually attend by Zoom or Facebook Live (details on the website) to get your weekly Friday inspiration. Moving forward, we will also include a forum to communicate with and engage the community, with a Q&A session to answer your questions. We hope you will join us for this starting this Friday, March 27, after the Online Khutbah. 

• For the safety and well-being of the community and our staff, we have also made the difficult decision to suspend daily congregational prayers at MAPS starting today, March 23, until further notice.

• While our in-person services are not happening, we have instituted a series of online religious programs from daily Khatiras (spiritual reminders), Sunday Tafseer, and a weekly Muslim Experience Program so we can continue to remain spiritually connected even if physically apart. Go to our website for further information, including program times and log-in details. 

Educational Services

Thanks to technology, all of our educational programs have also moved to online platforms. We are serving hundreds of students through our Quran and Islamic studies classes, daily lectures, the Sunday school, Arabic classes, and more. Attendance has varied. The Quran classes are getting about 85% attendance. Yesterday, our Sunday school went online, with close to 50% attendance. And the adult classes have been well attended with 70% of students participating on weekdays.

One parent shared the following feedback about the online program: “I wanted to take a minute to thank you and your team for your efforts with the kids on zoom. I realize it is a different platform for you and the kids, but it really is priceless during this time. My son looks forward to class and seeing his friends on his monitor. It’s great that ya’ll are keeping it consistent and making the effort to continue despite the difficulties. JAK!”

We hope you and your family are also benefiting from our online programs, and I welcome your feedback anytime!

Human & Financial Services

This is an area where we have the greatest need and make the most impact on the lives of the vulnerable members of the community. We have set up an intake form for those seeking assistance on our website. 

In just a week, we received 53 requests for assistance; 35 of them have already been processed. We are awaiting additional information for the remaining to determine the level of assistance needed. Our Case Managers, working long hours, contacted requestors within 24 hours and in most cases, payments were processed the same day. Our core response team meets at 5pm every day to triage requests, track status and expedite assistance. We have disbursed over $15,000 in financial assistance in our first week alone and helped 10 families with food assistance.

We also conducted wellness checks on 30 seniors in our community over the phone.  Alhamdulillah, they are in good health and remain positive. Shelters are experiencing an increase in need as COVID-19’s impact on the economy expands.  MAPS-MCRC programs, including the delivery of hot meals to shelters, are continuing. Our volunteers collect food from local vendors and deliver them to the shelters, in accordance with Public Health guidelines. We continue to collaborate with our partners to amplify our collective work and share resources to reach as many people in need as possible.

Let me share a couple real-life examples of our response on the ground, to put a human perspective to this tragedy.

• A single Muslim woman, who works at a well-known technology company, has been suffering from COVID-19 symptoms. She is in self-quarantine and anxious, especially as she has no family or friends in the area. She reached out to us for support. We arranged for a volunteer to drop off food, hygiene products and medicine at her front door with no personal contact. She was concerned about what would happen to her if she passed away due to the illness. A MAPS COVID-19 volunteer spoke with her, and she was comforted knowing that a community is standing with her in support. The volunteer is speaking to her daily to ensure she is doing well. Please make prayers that her health improves.

• A young non-Muslim woman who held three jobs to sustain herself lost her jobs due to workplace shutdowns related to COVID-19 in the Seattle area. She reached out to us for food assistance. Our case manager identified the food items that she needed and connected her with the food pantry operated by our partner, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. But on the morning, she was to pick up the food, she realized that she did not have enough gas in her car to get there. She reached out to us anxious and worried, not knowing what to do. We met her, filled her gas tank, and provided emergency food cards so she could get food she needed until she could make it to the food pantry early next week.

Funeral Services

We have had several inquiries on funeral service arrangements during the coronavirus outbreak in light of state and national guidelines. To mitigate health risks and comply with public health orders, the following precautionary measures now apply to funeral services for the protection of volunteers and the wider community:

• A letter from the hospital certifying the absence of COVID-19 in the deceased is required before a body can be washed at our MAPS facility. For safety reasons, only a minimal number of individuals will be involved in the ritual washing of bodies. Any additional people, including family members, will not be allowed on site.

• In case a letter cannot be provided by the hospital or there is suspicion of COVID-19 infecting the deceased, the ritual body washing shall be performed at the First Call Plus premises in Renton.

• There will be no public gatherings for Janazah/funeral prayers, in accordance with the King County Public Health Order.

Media Coverage

In the last week, MAPS has received several press mentions relating to coronavirus, including the following:

• Seattle Times: How Seattle-area churches, mosques and synagogues are responding to the coronavirus, read more.

• KUOW: ‘Our faith is most tested’: Believers in Seattle area face challenge of coronavirus, read more.

• Bellevue Reporter: How are faith communities responding to the coronavirus pandemic?, read more.

• Seattle Weekly: How are faith communities responding to the coronavirus pandemic?, read more.

• HuffPost: Coronavirus Forces Mosques To Reassess Weekly Prayers And Ramadan Plans, read more.

• Seattle Times: Live streaming, praying with neighbors at home, keeping your hands off the challah: Seattle-area faith communities adjust to coronavirus restrictions, read more.

Pictures of MAPS were also featured in Reuters, and those photos can be viewed here . 

CALL TO ACTION :

As you can see, a lot is happening… but there is a lot more that needs to be done. You have also been generous as we received over $32,000 in donations toward our COVID-19 Fund during this time. We anticipate a surge in additional requests for assistance as the impact of coronavirus continues to take its toll on our economy and our medical system. While many are impacted, many of us are also in the fortunate position of being able to help. You can support the cause in the following ways:

1.To allow us to continue to help those in need, donate generously on our website .

2. Sign up as a volunteer to support our response efforts at www.mapsredmond.org/covid-19.   

3.   While in-person services at MAPS may be suspended, our programs have gone online. Make the time you spend at home productive, spiritual and locally-informed by joining us regularly for these programs. Learn more at www.mapsredmond.org.

4.   Please offer prayers to Allah SWT (God Almighty) to shower His mercy upon us and to eradicate this pandemic from all of humanity.

May Allah reward you abundantly for your kindness and generosity. There is no MAPS without the community – all of you. We are in this together. We will get through this together. And in the meantime, we will support, and lift up each other. May Allah continue to protect us all. Ameen. 

For questions, comments, concerns or feedback, please email our MAPS COVID-19 Task Force at covid19@mapsredmond.org .

Thank you,

Hyder Ali

MAPS President