Photo: "Phones" by blogTO Flickr pooler dave_in_t_o.

Last week, I wrote a post about the new Muslim help line, Naseeha, being launched this year. While the post itself asked a few questions, the comment thread was even more fruitful in producing some other valid questions about the new help line.

Earlier this week, I got in touch with Yaseen Poonah, Media Outreach Representative for Naseeha, who took the opportunity to address some of the questions from the post and the comments and clear up some of the possible misconceptions about the new help line.

While there are still more questions left to be answered, Yaseen did a great job of clearing up some of the confusion and misinformation that was discussed and presented earlier.

I'm hoping to follow up with Yaseen once the help line gets settled in order to find out more about the response, results, and reality of running Naseeha.

Why a Muslim youth helpline? What about Kids Help Phone?

There is a need for a specific Youth Helpline that deals with issues specifically in the Muslim Community. As a result, Naseeha provides Muslim youth with specific responses within an Islamic framework. We also act as a conduit, to refer Youth to the appropriate agency, if they're not comfortable with getting help directly.

What kind of training and qualifications do the peer counsellors have?

At Naseeha, we ensure that all of our counsellors are qualified and have previous experience dealing with youth issues. All our counsellors are trained professionals with backgrounds in social work and psychology. In addition, we have an advisory board which includes imams and other social service professionals that train and advice our counsellors as required.

What are the benefits of having a Youth run organization?

Youth may not be comfortable disclosing information to adults and may be more comfortable calling Naseeha, as this would be a peer to peer discussion. Also, the adults may not be as familiar with the issues and challenges that youth may be facing. At Naseeha, we are bridging the generation gap by offering peer-to-peer assistance rather than a parent to child relationship making this a viable Islamic outlet.

Is there really a need for a Muslim youth helpline?

Muslim Youth Helpline in UK is a good example of this. Personal experience gives us the understanding of what it's like to grow up in Canada as a Muslim youth and the challenges that youth face. We have spoken to different imams who say they are always getting inquiries about youth issues. A lot of inquiries people do not how to respond to.