ICCD President Memo

You are transforming education and saving our children!

Dear ICCD Community Member,

If youre anything like me, the new year is a wonderful time to reflect on the successes of the past year and look forward to whats to come.

You have contributed so much to our success this past year, last fundraising attendance and contributions were phenomenal alhamdu l Allah, and I want to share some encouraging news from the accomplishment youve made possible in 2023!

• The most exciting news is the purchase of the (2 houses) properties adjacent to our Masjid, value of $785,000.00. They are rented out now generating income of about $50,000.00 annually to our Masjid. A future funeral home is an ideal idea for one of them.

• Another property was donated as a WAQF by IFANCA ownership, May Allah reward them immensely for that, value of about $400,000.00.It is being used now as an outdoor playground for our children, to be used in the future to start our expansion project soon in shaa Allah to have a real indoor playground for youth with a school.

• Your generous donations made it possible for us to upgrade the Masjid HVAC system, replace the 20 years old damaged roof, upgrade the drinking water fountains, cleanup the sewer dumps,and more

• Your collected Zakat money helped keeping our full time Islamic school fees affordable and made it possible for the low-income families to sign up their children for a minimum fee or sometimes no fee.

• With your support, our weekly and monthly programs are increasing on demand, weekend youth programs for boys and girls have shown 85% increase in attendance this past year subhana Allah.

Throughout 2023, our community have doubled in numbers ma shaa Allah, our Masjid is full during Friday prayers to the point where we must lockup the doors to prevent overcrowd for safety and fire hazard reasons.

Throughout 2023, you have helped many children attend our Islamic School as public schools are not an option anymore. Thank you for your hands-on support! You have helped many children receive life-changing support in our growing community. You were right there with ICCD seeing this tremendous improvement in so many childrens lives!

While there is much to be thankful for in the past year, with your help we can meet a vision to more than double our impact in 2024! Our Vision plan to expand requires more lands as advised by the City of Des Plaines Officials.

With your help, we will buy more properties to solve our parking problems and start our expansion project that will serve our growing community members for generations to come.

In this time of the New Year, I look back upon 2023 with gratitude for you and the difference youve made in childrens lives. Lets look forward to an exciting 2024!

Serving together,

Imad Achmar
President - ICCD