Muslim and Jewish communities are defying stereotypes and coming together to do community service work across Michigan.
Volunteers from the Michigan Muslim Community Council, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Detroit and the Detroit community at-large joined forces in March to help beautify Nolan Elementary-Middle School, one of the many public schools that has been hit hard by the debt plaguing the Detroit school system.
"It's two faiths coming together for one cause, which is helping our students who are going to be our future," said Sumaiya Ahmed, the communications director for the Michigan Muslim Community Council.
While the Michigan senate recently approved $48.7 million in emergency funding for Detroit schools, keeping institutions like Nolan open through the year, the volunteers took matters into their own hands by organizing the library, fixing broken toilet seats in the bathrooms and painting murals along the school's hallways.
David Kurtzmann, the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Detroit, said the project is helping to combat perceived barriers between both faiths. In fact, the two communities have worked together for Mitzvah Day, a day of service that encompasses various volunteer projects across the Metro Detroit area, for years.
"It's bringing together diverse communities and shattering a perception that we don't know each other, that we can't work together," he said.
Learn more about their work in the video above.