On the weekend of 17-18 April 2010, SEFMY (Sex Education for Muslim Youth) hosted a professional development course titled “Sex education and protecting against STDs.” The FIMA-certified course was delivered by overseas guest Dr Abdulhamid Al-Qudah from Jordan. Dr Al-Qudah is a PhD graduate in microbiology from Manchester University in the UK and an expert on AIDs/HIV with the Federation of Islamic Medical Associations. He is also a member of the committee for research on human affairs at the University of Science and Technology in Jordan.
The two-day course held at the Rydges Hotel Bankstown, which targeted teachers, youth workers and healthcare professionals, was attended by fifty participants mainly from Sydney but also from Melbourne, Newcastle and Canberra. The course was content rich and comprehensively covered what is a serious contemporary problem. Participants were extremely satisfied with the course and left fully enriched.
The course was proudly sponsored by the Australian Islamic Mission (AIM) and Human Appeal International (HAI) Australia.
On the Saturday evening AIM hosted a dinner for Dr Al-Qudah along with two visiting scholars from Saudi Arabia, Sh Mohammad Al-Luhaidan and Sh Ayman Olayan.
In addition to the course, Dr Al-Qudah delivered several satellite lectures at the Newcastle Mosque, Lakemba Mosque and Punchbowl Musallah on topics such as "The Quranic miracles in microbiology", "The Prophetic miracles in ablution (wudu)" and "Family tarbiyyah."
