An announcement regarding the postponement of the Dubai 2010 Conference was originally posted on the GDM website in December, however many deaf and hard of hearing Muslims have continued to discuss participating in this conference. I am forwarding a copy of this announcement to everyone in this group in case anyone missed the original post. Thank you for your time.
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As salaamu ‘Alaikum.
My name is Hakim and as the Director of Fundraising, I am issuing the following announcement on behalf of Global Deaf Muslim. We have worked very hard to try to secure the necessary funds from our main sponsors, however I regret to inform you that we are unable to meet our budgetary targets for the Dubai Conference 2010 and have no choice but to postpone it indefinitely. Our goal to provide about twenty speakers and panel members, thirteen sign language interpreters, and accommodations for those deaf participants who are unable to afford them. We followed our main sponsors’ recommendations and received the necessary approvals from the ministries of the Dubai government but our main sponsors are unable to commit within the current time frame.
We know that many of you are disappointed and we are truly sorry. We all wanted this conference to be a success. We worked diligently over the past year, publicizing this event for fundraising and staying up all night writing tons of letters and answering emails. We did our best and planned but we know that “Allah is the best of planners.”
Even though we are no longer hosting the conference this year, we have made a lot of progress. We have networked with many deaf Muslims around the world, and these connections are a tremendous asset since we can now get information to them quickly online. We have also secured non-profit status approval from the US government. We have learned a lot from our experiences and will operate more efficiently Insha’Allah (God Willing).
We are now stepping up fundraising efforts and reaching out to more potential sponsors, including ministries of the UAE federal government. Raising the necessary funds for our conference will take time. In the meantime, we have reimbursed those of you who paid for registration. If you haven’t received your refund already, then please contact us as soon as possible.
We would like express our profound thanks to the volunteers for the Dubai conference for their participation and due diligence in assisting us. We are also very grateful to our deaf communities in the US, Australia, from the Middle East, Africa, and Europe for believing in us and being so generous with their time and effort.
We hope for your continued support in our future endeavors.
From the Board of Directors, Global Deaf Muslim.
