Westmount Centre

MAC Westmount Centre

The MAC Westmount Centre (MWC) was envisioned in the summer of 2018, with various community meetings in the Fall of 2018 before proceeding with opening the Centre. Generous support was provided by brother Abdul Rahim Chahbar to enable the opening of this Centre at 312 Commissioners Rd W, Unit 5, which was opened in April 2019 with the following intentions;

  • ·he need for a spiritual space for the Muslim community in southwestern London was clearly demonstrated with the due diligence conducted for the MAC Noor Gardens Community Centre.
  • Unfortunately, due to sanitary capacity and other challenges, Noor Gardens was facing some delays, and in the meantime a transition space was needed to accommodate the needs of the community.
  • The community also needed to build congregation for the future Noor Gardens, as well as human resources, programming, systems, and processes.
  • The MAC Youth Centre building, owned and operated by MAC London at the time, was too limiting due to accessibility, parking, and noise constraints.
  • The rent generated from MAC Youth Centre and some additional funding could cover the operational and rental costs of the MWC, and hence, ensure donations for the MAC Noor Gardens project were not utilized.

MAC Westmount Centre Committee

The MWC is operated by the MWC Centre Committee and consists of various volunteers and leading Centre staff, that overlook the day to day operations of the MWC. Their efforts have been fundamental to the professionalism, organization and commitment to service that the MWC has come to be known for. The current make of the MWC Centre Committee is follows.

  • Abeer Rkie (Chair)
  •  Ahmed Ibrahim
  •  Dalia El-Laham
  •  Mahmoud Zeidan
  •  Mohammed Ellaw
  •  Reem Ansari

Activities

Like the MAC Youth Centre, the MWC has been a tremendous success, alhamdulillah (praise be to God), in terms of community reception and serving community needs. With a substantial concentration of Muslims in the area, as well as recent Syrian refugee immigrants, the Centre was almost immediately full to threshold for many programs. Since MWC was opened right before Ramadan 2019, Sheikh Adnan Rajeh and his team provided great support with regards to leading the Taraweh (Ramadan evening prayers), and the Centre would be often full for Taraweh prayers, Friday prayers, Eid prayers, and other programs. With the start of the Family night program in September 2019, it became very clear that the community had outgrown the Centre and was making efforts accommodate the increasing needs of the community, including utilizing addition space upstairs above the lower level of MWC. Programs such as the Quran Hifz program and Arabic weekend school would fill to capacity and the Centre Committee would have to make new efforts to find new capacity by hiring additional instructors and arranging space. Below is a list of the various additional activities offered by the MAC Westmount Centre.

  • 5 daily prayers
  • Family Nights
  • Youth Programming (Brothers and Sisters Youth Groups from MYC were transitioned to MWC)
  • Quran Hifz (memorization) Program
  • Arabic School Program (coming soon)
  • Mom and Tot’s programs
  • Taraweh (Ramadan evening prayers)
  • Tahajjud (Late night prayers)
  • Iftars and Suhoor (pre-fast, and breaking of the fast meals)
  • And much much more…

Finances

As mentioned the initial intention for the MAC London team was to have the rent generated from MAC Youth Centre and some additional funding obtained during Friday prayers would cover the operational and rental costs of the MWC, and hence, ensure donations for the MAC Noor Gardens project were not utilized. However, the MWC was utilized in a much greater way than anticipated and many more services were offered to meet the needs of the community, and hence, the expense of MWC have been greater than anticipated. Moreover, in late 2019, the MAC Youth Centre was put up for sale to provide capital investment needed at the MAC Hyde Park Centre and other effort, so the MYC rental income that funded operations will no longer be available and the MWC will need to cover its operation costs through community donations. The Centre Committee for MWC has been actively fundraising to be able to cover its costs and ensure the funds raised for MAC Noor Gardens remain reserved for the Noor Gardens project. We kindly request that you DONATE GENEROUSLY in the link below to the consistent and strong operations of the Centre.

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