Maritime Muslim Academy celebrates diversity with multiculturalism party
Multiculturalism is important at the Maritime Muslim Academy in Halifax where 140 students from 20 different countries on five continents are educated.
On Saturday, the school invited the public to celebrate its diversity with food, music, games, crafts, displays of traditional clothing and henna skin designs.
Afrah Kashmer, chair of the school's parent-teacher group, said the multicultural event took four months of planning.
Even staff didn't realize how diverse the student body was until they started organizing the event, she said.
The event teaches children that diversity is always enriching, Kashmer said. She said students who "mingle with people who are Christian, who are Jew, who are Hindu, with different [cultures], they will learn something different."
Their level of awareness about the world will rise and they'll have a more successful future, she said.
Gharoub Abdulrahman, a girl who moved to Halifax from Kuwait last summer, attended Saturday's gathering at the academy.
She noted that cultural diversity helps people make more friends.
"You want to make friends from all around the world, not from only one country," she said.
