March 7, 2004
Charities Prayers Answered By SMS
An Islamic Prayer Alert service has raised over £15k for charities in the UK, according to 160characters.org.
"Launched exactly a year ago, the SMS Muslim Prayer & Ayaat text alert service) sends out more than 20,000 messages a month to remind muslims of the times for daily prayers and has raised over £15,000 pounds since it started. Each message costs the recipient 25p.
The service delivers a text message to subscribers every morning before the first prayer (Fazr) with all the prayer times for that day (London based time) and with a quotation from the Holy Quran (an Ayaat) included.
The service will be rolled out across Europe within the next 3 months in conjunction with the Central Mosques in Spain, Italy, Germany and France. The service will be marketed locally with the help of Islamic Charities via email, leaflets, word of mouth and during Islamic Holy days."
For more on how religions around the world are reaching out to young people by text messaging to spread the good word, cf SMS, Good for the Soul and the SMS and religion category in Textually.
See also other innovative campaigns to raise money using text messaging.
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