Muhammadiyah Council for Higher Education Research and Development (CHERD) in collaboration with Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) held a welcoming ceremony for Muhammadiyah Scholarship for Palestinians and UMY Summer School in AR B Building, Fifth Floor, UMY on Friday (15/07). The ceremony warmly welcomed 23 Palestinian students that follows Short Course of the first batch on three MHEIs, UM Yogyakarta, UM Surakarta, and UM Makassar. Besides the 23 Palestinian students, 43 international students from various countries that also followed UMY Summer School program attended the ceremony.
Muhammadiyah Scholarship Program for Palestinians is a collaborative program of National Zakat Agency in Indonesia (Baznas RI), Muhammadiyah Institute for Zakat, Infaq, Sadaqah (LazisMu), and Muhammadiyah CHERD through the Ma’had Islam Rafiatul Akhyar (MIRA) donation of Ustadz Adi Hidayat (UAH).
In his remarks, Prof. Syafiq A Mughni H, M.A, Ph.D., the Chairman of Muhammadiyah Central Board mentioned the Muhammadiyah scholarship Program for Palestinians becomes a supportive program to develop human resources in the Palestinian education and also in Muhammadiyah ‘Aisyiyah Higher Education Institution (MHEIs). According to Prof Syafiq, the program supported the values of humanity, especially for Muslims in the Islamic brotherhood to help each other. “The program also becomes a global vision implementation of Muhammadiyah to create Islamic humanism and universalism with rahmatan lil ‘alamin spirit,” he said.
Welcoming Ceremony of Muhammadiyah Scholarship For Palestinians
To respond to Prof Syafiq’s statement, Ustadz Adi Hidayat in his remarks recalled KH Ahmad Dahlan’s spirit to establish Muhammadiyah as an organization. All Muhammadiyah programs reflected its social concern to contribute to the social environment. “So he defined social concern as sharing programs to build PKU (Muhammadiyah hospital) and encourage education inclusivity that currently has reached hundreds of higher education institutions,” he said. So the program became one KH Ahmad Dahlan conception in Kauman, Yogyakarta, that currently has spread globally even in the Holy Land, Palestine.
The continuous program was expected by Dr. Zuhair Al Shun, the Palestine Ambassador to Indonesia to support Palestine’s human resources in education. He also explained that he has made the announcement and advertisement for the second term courses of the Muhammadiyah Scholarship for Palestinians program. “We hope that our cooperation will continue not only for this year but also for the coming years, apart from that, we are hoping for cooperation between Muhammadiyah university and any universities in Palestine. So we work together for partnership, joint research, exchange of knowledge, etc,” he said.
On this occasion, Muhammad Sayuti, M.Pd., M.Ed, Ph.D, the Secretary of Muhammadiyah CHERD, Prof. Dr. Ir. Gunawan Budiyanto, M.P, IPM, the Rector of UM Yogyakarta, H. Achmad Sudradjat, Lc, MA, the Head of National Zakat Coordination Affairs for Baznas RI, and Dr. Mahli Zainuddin Tago, M.Si, the Head of LazisMu.
