Policies

In a spirit of transparency, and with a view to making it as easy as possible to access and check Himmah's policies, they are, over time, being put on the Internet...

Volunteers Policy
Environmental Policy (inc source of prinitng paper)



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VOLUNTEERS POLICY
Why volunteers?
Himmah welcomes the vital help and experience that volunteers bring to the organisation – without volunteers Himmah simply would not exist.

Himmah values the practical work that volunteers do in getting things done and also the ideas and suggestions that volunteers can give to make Himmah a more effective organisation.

How do Volunteers get involved?
As an initial point of contact, please email Ash Choudry on ash_choudryy@yahoo.co.uk

What kind of roles are available?
Some examples of roles that volunteers can perform in Himmah:
i) Practical help in organising one-off events
ii) Regular help in on-going projects (e.g sorting food for the foodank)
iii) Help with research projects (e.g. contacting organisations to obtain data)
iv) Lobbying (making the case for social justice with local/national government , companies etc)

Himmah are keen to ensure that volunteers are offered a wide breadth of potential roles and encourage volunteers to try something new as well as offering their existing skills.

Supervision and Support
This document represents an induction to Himmah and should be seen by all volunteers.

Supervision at events is via the nominated event organiser.

Supervision for other roles will be arranged as appropriate.

All volunteers should have receive a response to any email/text questions within 24hrs (holidays etc excepted). This is important to Himmah as a demonstration of Himmahs respect for its volunteers.

If you, as a volunteer, feel you are not receiving a timely response please email Ash Choudry who is the "contact of last resort" and who will endeavour to chase the issue up for you

Equal opportunites
Himmah welcomes volunteers from all sections of society .

Insurance
All Volunteers are insured when performing Himmah activities

Health and Safety
[This section still to be drafted]

Confidentiality
Volunteers are expected to respect the privacy of people who they come in contact with during their activities at Himmah and not to identify them outside the organisation unless they have specifically given permission to do so.

Participation
Volunteers are encouraged to participate in the periodic management meetings that Himmah holds. Contact your supervisor or Ash Choudry if you are interested in this.

What Himmah expects from Volunteers
Himmah expects volunteers to work to:

Work to the best of their ability in a constructive and co-operative way.

Deliver on any time commitments that you make. This is very important as volunteers who say they will do something and then don't do it, without any message of explanation, are a drain on the resources and morale of the remaining volunteers. It's ok to say "no".

Expenses
Himmah does not generally pay expenses, except in excetional circumstances

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ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Himmah recognises the role that we all have to play as stewards of the environment, and that Islamic teachings strongly mandate the protecton of the plan and animal communities around us (especially trees), humane treatment of animals and frugal consummtion of the earths natural resources.

But pious words are cheap - the challenge is to put these ideals into practice. To this end, Himmah aims, over time, to become an example of "best pracice" in terms of its actual applied environmental policy.

As a starting point, Himmah will ensure that any leaflets, flyers etc that it prints will be printed on sustainably sourced paper (e.g. FSC certified or, ideally, recycled).

Himmah recognises that many claims of paper companies to be "sustainable" are simply "Greenwash" - i.e. where a company claims to be operating in a sustainable manner without actually doing so. In particular, Himmah views the PEFC and ISO14001 standards as being inferior to those of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), with post-consumer recycled paper being the most sustainable option of all.

Himmah also recognises that a failure to ensure that paper is sustainably sourced means that it could be contributing to the practices of illegal logging, forest clearances or planting of monoculture wood crops (which wipe out local plant and animal communities).

Lastly, Himmah recognises that, in a society where even supermarket till receipts are printed on FSC certifed paper, the Muslim community meeds to dramatically improve its practices in the area of environmental awareness.

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