How We Rebuilt Berekah’s Website

Jun 20, 2025

The right technology disappears into the background — so communities can come to the foreground.

We recently partnered with the Berekah Ethiopian Muslim Community (BEMC) to rebuild their website from the ground up.
It wasn’t just a new coat of paint — it was a full systems rethink:

Modern architecture
Editor-friendly CMS
Membership and payments
SEO, accessibility, mobile — all baked in

Here’s what we built, how we approached it, and why it matters.

The Problem: Outdated, Unscalable, Hard to Manage

Berekah's original site had good intentions — but like many community websites, it had grown messy over time:

Static pages with no update path
Clunky design that didn’t work well on mobile
No system for events, posts, or media
No way to accept memberships or donations online

They needed a tool, not a brochure — something their team could actually use and grow with.

The RUKMAYA Approach: Clarity, Control, and Care

We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all. Our approach is always tailored. For Berekah, we combined:

✅ Next.js 15 App Router – performance-first architecture with server-side rendering
✅ Sanity.io CMS – a flexible, editor-friendly backend for events, blogs, media, and more
✅ Stripe Checkout – secure payments for memberships
✅ Custom Design System – accessible, token-driven, mobile-optimized
✅ Deployment on Vercel – modern CI/CD with GitHub integration

Everything was built with non-technical editors in mind — the Berekah team can now manage posts, events, and images with ease.

Highlights of the Build

📅 Event System — Filterable, date-aware, agenda-ready
📸 Gallery Management — Photo-first layout powered by the CMS
📝 Blog/News — Fully dynamic, metadata-rich, and SEO-structured
🙌 Membership Application — With real-time Stripe payments and webhook-linked CMS updates
🧾 Custom Logo Design — A new brand mark that scales from favicon to poster

We also handled all DNS, environment configuration, metadata, and post-launch testing — so when it went live, it just worked.

Why This Matters

Berekah’s site isn’t just cleaner — it’s a better foundation for their community:

Staff can publish new content without developers
Members can apply and pay online
Visitors can find upcoming events and explore past ones
The organization can grow without rebuilding again next year

This is what we mean by sustainable software.

Built for the Long Run

We don’t drop code and disappear.
Our handoff included:

Training support for admins
Optional content management docs
Future-ready structure (e.g., sermon archives, newsletter integration)

When Berekah is ready to grow, their site will grow with them.

Want Something Similar?

We’re here to partner with teams who want to move fast, build well, and grow with purpose.