Last week, a group of dedicated female madrassa teachers travelled with Halal Safaris Africa to one of the most evocative heritage sites on Pate Island — a dilapidated historic mosque now overgrown and at risk of collapse. What made this visit remarkable was not just the ruins themselves, but the presence of volunteers from the local community who led the conservation efforts.

Pate Resource and Tourism Initiative (PRATI) is a community-based organisation on Pate Island formed to protect the island’s natural and cultural resources while creating sustainable economic opportunities through ecotourism and conservation. Founded and led by local residents, PRATI members have taken initiative to restore degraded mangrove forests, establish community-run visitor facilities (bandas), and promote environmentally responsible tourism that highlights Pate’s heritage and landscapes.

As we walked among the coral-stone walls and the worn doorways, the teachers reflected on how tangible history deepens spiritual learning in ways that books alone cannot achieve. Seeing the mosque’s carved pulpits and imagining generations of worshippers and scholars breathed new life into classroom lessons on Islamic civilisation.

Halal Safaris has long positioned heritage engagement as responsible travel — rooted in tayyib values and community impact, directly supporting local groups while connecting visitors with authentic East African Muslim history. As a means of giving back to the local community, Halal Safaris provided the free tour for our teachers. Future tours will be carried out for our students as well.

For the madrassa teachers, the visit became a source of inspiration and a reminder that the preservation of material heritage matters not only for tourism or archaeology, but for nurturing identity, faith, and continuity among future generations.