Amina and Hafsa Rahman are learning how to be community journalists for NPR Illinois with the guidance of editor Priyanka Deo. The team discusses the coming observance of Ramadan.
Priyanka Deo: I have Amina and Hafsa, our two fabulous citizen journalists. Do you guys want to tell us about the progress that you're making this week?
Amina Rahman: Priyanka, Hafsa and I got to meet you in person and have a discussion. In terms of the citizen journalist aspect, I feel like, and I think Hafsa too, we feel like we, we always need some feedback to see if we're on the right track. So that was very helpful.
Hafsa Rahman: She specifically said, "Right now, it would be important to make sure our scripts are as ready as we can get them without them being too set in stone.We'll start working on that.
Priyanka Deo: We spoke about cross-applying our interviews. Like talking to people and finding out, and this is an important tenet of journalism, it's really important to not only dig for answers, but ask more questions.
This week, is there anything that either of you want to let us know about going on in the community?
Amina Rahman: Everybody's getting ready for Ramadan. Hafsa took my boys to shop for little gifts for their Ramadan calendar because they get little gifts every day for doing good things and doing what they're supposed to do. It's going to be a busy time for our community, but it's also an opportunity to see a lot of people that we don't always see throughout the year because everybody shows up during Ramadan.
It'll be a great chance for us to get interviews from different segments of the community.
Priyanka Deo: It's nice to know that the community has a really vibrant Ramadan month where everyone gets together. A lot of people probably don't even know about it. What have you seen where people can get involved and community members can get involved?
Amina Rahman: On the weekends, we have iftar, which is the meal that when we break our fast at sunset time. It happens at our community center. That draws about 500 people. So you're right. It is very vibrant and very exciting.
If people want to come and drop in, that's definitely something that they can do. They just need to let us know so we can make sure we have someone to greet them and make sure they can get comfortable with the whole big crowd of people. We also have iftars at our mosque during the week and that are a little smaller. It's like about 30 people who show up.
If anybody's interested in seeing what it's like during Ramadan, they can contact the mosque and come and visit. It's a time for us to do awareness. A lot of parents like to do presentations in their kids school about Ramadan to share the holiday. They'll bring in treats for the students or for staff. It's just a way for us to share about our culture and our holidays with the general public.
Priyanka Deo: I love how you're tying in actual real life and real time events into your journalism pieces. I'm super excited to see the final pieces. Thanks everyone for listening to this edition of the J-Corps Audio Journal.
2025 Ramadan is observed February 28 at sundown and ends March 29 at sundown.
Eid al-Fitr celebrates the end of Ramadan on March 30.
Amina adds: The dates for Ramadan and Eid are said to be expected on these days as they require the sighting of the new crescent moon. This year, the new moon will start to be visible in the Middle East, so by the time it reaches North America the moon will be more visible. This makes people pretty certain about the start of Ramandan. For Eid, it will be trickier to know ahead of time whether it will be 29 days or 30 days after the beginning of Ramadan (lunar calendar days are 29 or 30 days, not 30 or 31).
Mosque: Islamic Society of Springfield
email: isogs@outlook.com
phone: 217-529-8970
Press Forward Springfield is awarding its first project grants. NPR Illinois along with the Illinois Times and Capitol News Illinois are each receiving funding to report on different untold stories in our community. The three reporting projects will be posted in May.
Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln in collaboration with the Field Foundation and the Illinois Department of Human Services are leading this project as part of their Healing Illinois program.
NPR Illinois is using the grant to test its vision for community reporting and journalism training — the Journalism Corps or "J-Corps."
