City council raises over MVR 700,000 to renovate Male’ mosques

The city council has raised over MVR 700,000 through its ‘Chaalu Miskiy’ fundraiser to collect funds to repair and renovate mosques in Male’ City ahead of the upcoming holy month of Ramadan.

The ‘Chaalu Miskiy’ fundraiser held over the weekend closed at 06:00 pm Saturday.

The two-day fundraiser was held at the Artificial Beach. According to the city council, over MVR 300,000 was raised in the first day alone.

The fundraiser began with a children’s evening on Friday. The city council set up stalls at the Artificial Beach to provide information on estimated costs and equipment and resources for renovation of each of the 26 mosques the council plans on renovating. And Islamic scholars delivered lectures.

City council states that people can continue to donate money and equipment for renovation of mosques.

The city council said they decided to hold the fundraiser because they were mandated the work of renovating mosques without being provided a sufficient budget.

According to Male’ City Mayor Dr. Mohamed Muizzu, the government allocated a budget of MVR 1 million for the renovation of mosques in 2021 and 2022.

He said the city council spent an additional MVR 10 million from its own revenue for the work.

“Despite renovations of MVR 10 million from the council’s revenue budget, some mosques remain unrenovated. We estimate it will cost MVR 9 million to renovate the mosques,” he said.

The city council is required to repair and renovate mosques in the greater Male’ area under the Decentralization Act. The council currently manages 34 mosques in Male’ City, Hulhumale’, and Vilimale’.