Assalam-o-Alaikum

Master of ceremonies, members of the Supreme Council, ladies and gentlemen.

It gives me a great pleasure to be amongst such an illustrious gathering of the memon community throughout the world getting together in this lovely venue in the lovely city of Dubai, which is a historical event and will go down in history.

We are all wasting time and discussing problems and subjects that we don't understand. So let us now get to brass text as to what this conference is all about.

First and foremost a council must be formed from the people of all parts of the world which is most urgently required and must be opened to all the memon population and not a private club.

My vision of our community is to give upliftment as much as possible to our community and there must be no memon zakat takers but we must make them zakat givers. Our main aim is to give our new generation the highest quality of education at the best possible institutions, so that they can go out in the world and help others.

Amongst our community we find a lot of jealousy and this must be eradicated at all cost. We must become one memon community irrespective of which village our forefathers originated from, our goal must be to be one nation. Therefore it is our duty today to start giving thought to the future of our community and to serve humanity in the 21st century. We need a new breed of skilled and educated persons including engineers, armed with scientific training and technological skill. They will also need sensitivity and compassion to solve the multifarious problems of modern society and to work hand in hand in which ever country they live in. It is now time to build Islamic Institutions with modern education to preserve our religion and culture and to give our future generation the best possible education at all levels. We must also look at how our community can take part in modern sports of all kinds, as we have not found one memon sportsman competing at an international level in spite of our many young sportsmen who have great talent. Our association must uplift the people who require our assistance.

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This country needs to educate the under privileged children especially in Africa for our black community who have been deprived proper education in the past. It is our duty as citizens of this country to play our part and to uplift the community at large.

The Southern African Memon Foundation is proud to say that we opened the first primary school in Soshanguve on the 4th September 2000 which houses seven hundred primary school children. For those who attended the opening of Gontse Primary School it was a dream come true for our memon community, which we must all be proud of. Projects of this nature must continue to be established for the betterment of every country its people.

If you want to lift an unprivileged person you never give him fish but you buy him a fishing rod so that he can start earning his own living and stop begging.

May ALMIGHTY ALLAH bless our people, I do hope and pray that our community works together and grows from strength to strength so that the fruits can be enjoyed by our future generations to come.

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