ARIF JACKSI
NASIMCO President
2019-2022
New York’s very own, entrepreneur and business owner, Arif Jacksi, has been elected as NASIMCO’s (youngest) president at the age of 48. His involvement with NASIMCO consists of formally being an Executive Councilor which was followed by his role as the Vice President during the 2017-2019 term.
Jacksi’s leadership skills trail back to the age of 15, when he became the chairman of “The Discussion Group”, a youth committee in Moshi, Tanzania. Later in his life, he filled the role as joint-secretary, vice president, and then the president of SIJNY jamaat (New York, USA).
When asked, Jacksi mentioned that NASIMCO’s three challenges include sustainability, funding and youth involvement. He sees and understands the lack of youth involvement and is working actively with youth members who have been elected for the team, to create a youth desk solely for youth members.
In turn, the youths, with guidance from the NASIMCO board and participating communities, will help in generating funds to assist with other areas including the youth desk.
Re-establishing trust
The NASIMCO Head is aware that the loss of connection with NASIMCO’s grassroots and jamaats has directly impacted the funding which has made it difficult to provide funds to the jamaats in need. Jacksi is keen on re-establishing the confidence and trust members once had in NASIMCO and to ensure them that the organization is always here at their service.
He also plans to create a sustainability program with individual jamaats to reduce their reliance on donations.
Networking is vital and his initiatives cater to that exactly! Amongst several others, our NASIMCO president’s initiatives include an APP development to simplify usage for the digital world, increase NASIMCO’s social media presence, sharing of important resources for all neighboring jamaats to avoid duplication of efforts, and connecting with youths, seniors and women who have often times been overlooked, unknowingly.
Connecting with all the jamaats
His first mission for his term as president is: “To really connect with all the jamaats. I feel there’s a lot of disconnect and I really want to get that connection back.” Arif has begun this process by designating different jamaats to his Executive Council members who will be responsible for establishing a communication line with their assigned jamaats.
Throughout our conversation with him, Arif constantly thanked Allah for the opportunities which have been presented to him.
He strongly believes that with the strength given by the Almighty, the support from his wife, and the prayers of his parents and family, he’s been able to witness his own successes and hopes the same for this term as the president of NASIMCO.
For Eid-Ul-Adha, he released a presidential address which can be viewed here