Amana Initiative

Inspiration

As Muslim students in Quebec, we realized that laws and regulations surrounding religious practice can have very real consequences on students' everyday lives. Yet, when facing a restriction related to religious clothing, prayer, religious activities, or other aspects of their faith, We realized that many muslim students may not know what their rights are, what options they have, or where to turn.

We were inspired to build Amana because we believe that having rights is not enough, students need to understand them and know how to navigate their reality.

What it does

Amana Initiative is a student-focused platform that helps Muslim students navigate the impact of Quebec's religious and secularism laws on campus.

Amana provides clear, accessible information about students' rights and helps them find practical and lawful alternatives when regulations affect their ability to practice their religion.

We don't provide legal representation or pursue legal action. Instead, we help students answer three questions:

What are my rights? What are my options? What can I do next?

Our goal is to help Muslim students continue their education while practicing their religion safely, freely, and without feeling alone.

How we built it

We began by researching the challenges Muslim students can face in Quebec's educational institutions and examining relevant laws, regulations, university policies, and existing resources.

We then translated this research into a simple website. Instead of asking students to navigate complicated legal documents, we designed Amana around real questions and situations students may encounter and solution to faces theses issues.

We built our Website using Wix. The coding part using AI, VSCode and React, with reusable components and a structure that can be expanded with additional resources, scenarios, and institutions.

Challenges we ran into

One of our biggest challenges was simplifying a complex and sensitive subject without oversimplifying it. Also writing the code and run it was pretty challenging, since we started by making the website on wix.

We needed to make legal and institutional information understandable to students while being careful not to provide legal advice or encourage anyone to disregard regulations.

We also had to prioritize what to build within the limited time of the hackathon. We focused on the features that could provide the most immediate value to students rather than trying to build everything at once.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that we turned a problem that can feel complex, intimidating, and difficult to navigate into a simple and accessible student experience.

We are especially proud of creating a platform that doesn't just provide information, but focuses on what a student can actually do when facing the consequences of this law.

We also successfully transformed our initial concept into a code and created a foundation that can continue to grow beyond the hackathon. **after having fixed the code ;))

What we learned

We learned that access to information is not the same as access to understanding.

Information can already exist across government websites, university policies, and legal organizations, but students may still struggle to find it, understand it, or know how it applies to their situation.

We also learned how important it is to design technology around the user's real experience, rather than simply building features.

Most importantly, we learned that technology can serve as a bridge between students and resources that already exist — making those resources easier to understand and act upon.

What's next for Amana Initiative

We want to expand Amana into a more comprehensive student resource platform.

Next, we plan to add more student-specific scenarios, university and CEGEP policies, verified resources, and practical pathways for navigating different situations.

We also want to work with Muslim students and community organizations to make sure the information remains relevant, accurate, and genuinely useful.

Our long-term vision is simple:

When a Muslim student faces a challenge related to their religious practice, they should know their rights, understand their options, and know where to go next.

Know your rights. Know your options. Stay true to your faith.

Built With

• vscode
• wix