Cutchi Sunni Muslim Association Birmingham (CSMA Birmingham) formed in 2010 is a non-profit organisation (No: 07474348) that relies solely on volunteers help and donations. We started off by providing a small community and religious service but then after recognising a range of issues faced by multi-faith communities such as Bereavements, Funerals and Poverty the CSMA started offering the following services for free all communities.

• Bereavement Support, After Care Support and Burial Fund (Free funeral for the needy)

• Food Banks

• Religious Events

• Inter faith Activities

We provide the following services for free:

Bereavement Support, After Care Support and Burial Fund (Free funeral for the needy)

CSMA Birmingham provides free bereavement support to all communities and backgrounds, we work closely with other organisations such as Birmingham Muslim Burial Council and Cruse. On average 200 people die a week in Birmingham and we provide advisory support with step-by-step instructions for dealing with deaths at home and at the hospital. We make the process easier for bereaved families; we help in rapid release, digital autopsy if required and also work with the funeral director for burials. Furthermore, we have recently setup a Burial Fund for the less fortunate where CSMA Birmingham helps out with the Burial costs for the less fortunate and needy.

Our Aim and Goals are to:

• Quicker release of deceased body (Rapid Release)

• Relieve the bereaved family of anxiety and stressful aspects of burying their loved one

• Reduce large volume of enquiries from family creating further delays at the Coroner Office, Hospital etc

• Avoid unnecessary Post Mortem and have a access to MRI/CT Scan

• Reduce abuse to Medical staff, Bereavement officers and other stakeholder service staff

• Educate the Public on the Burial Procedures and Policies

• Free funeral service for the needy

We work with:

• Coroner Office

• Hospital Bereavement Officers / General Practitioners

• Registrar Office & Council

• Cemetery Management Offices

• Digital Autopsy (IGENE)

• Funeral Directors

• Birmingham Muslim Council

• All Communities

• Charities & Organisations (Cruse, Multi-Faith etc)

It takes a lot of time and efforts providing these free services as our volunteers work full time and have to take time off as holidays to assist. Furthermore when a death occurs we can only provide telephone support whilst if we had full time paid staff we could physically go with the families to the Coroners, Hospital etc saving them confusion and time. Therefore it has come time for us to go full time.

At CSMA Birmingham we try our best to help with end of life support for the terminally ill and those who are reaching the end of their lives. At times we have helped families cover the cost of the funerals as not everyone can afford it especially who eligible for Zakat or who have no family support. Therefore, we have setup a Burial Fund to support the community. We have supported many individuals with burial support. On average a funeral costs £3,000 minimum in UK and prices are increasing every year. Prices for funerals in Birmingham and London can range from £4,000 onwards. We try to help us much as we can.

The After Care Support we offer is a rare service, we help the family or individual with support with after death of a loved one as people can suffer for depression which can lead to health issues or even financial loss. We work directly with the families and another organisation called “Cruse Bereavement Support” whom we help at times and also refer cases to them as CSMA Birmingham has not got any full time staff to help.

The Problem:

The problem CSMA Birmingham faces is lack of time during office hours, as all of our volunteers work full time elsewhere therefore we cannot fully assist the families or funeral directors physically which we would love to do which saves a lot of stress for the family but we help by telephone and email support providing step to step guidance which itself helps a lot.

The plan is to get financial help so that we can employ full time staff who are there to help the families 24hr, 7 days a week support physically and by telephone as the support we provide not only helps the family but also the Coroner, Hospitals and Registrar as we take all the stress and arrange everything as one point of contact saving a lot of time for the officials to do their job with any disturbance or issues. The full time staff will run the office and its duties such as helping the families, funeral directors and work with bereavement services making the process easier, the full time staff will be able to carry out the administrative duties such as full and accurate record keeping and also promote our service and give professional advice through website and social media by user education. We can then do regular Bereavement Seminar and Workshops too.

We also like to buy funeral vehicles so that we can provide free all in one service for the needy from picking up the body from hospital to helping in doing the paperwork and burying the individual and covering the complete costs which is normally £4000 per funeral.

Our final Aim is to provide:

• Free Bereavement Service, work with partnership agencies

• Free Advisory Support with step-by-step instructions

• Free Burial Service for the needy (after full case assessed)

• Free After Care Support for families of the deceased

• Free Workshops, Training and Seminars

• Work with other organisations and charities such as Cruse, Birmingham Muslim Burial Council etc

We also do other services:

Food Banks

CSMA Birmingham work in partnership with another charitable organisation called “Unite in Virtue”. We are committed to helping the hungry, providing hope for those facing hardship and working together to build and sustain more positive communities. On average, we help feed more than 200 people every weekend at the food bank in Birmingham. Our volunteers take time out of their busy schedule to cook hot meals, sandwiches, snacks and provide water, along with warm clothing, blankets and sleeping bags that have been donated. We also hand them out to the homeless and distribute food to whoever is in need of it.

Religious Events:

We provide the Muslim Community religious knowledge on Muslim funerals. We host events such as fun Eid celebrations for the community and religious events to give Islamic knowledge.

Inter faith Activities:

We provide training and workshops on Bereavement Support and Funeral Procedures all communities. We organise Fun Days and Social Events. We host events and invite members of other faith traditions to join in event such as charity dinners.

The Donations

The donations collected will help us with paid Staff, Office and buy Funeral vehicles so that we can offer Free funerals for the needy and also provide our services full time 24/7.

Please help us with your donation (lillah only) as we can use that for our projects.

For more information you can visit us www.csmabirmingham.co.uk