Islamic Relief’s latest Annual Report, published today, shows continued growth in our positive impact as we tackle poverty and suffering in an increasingly turbulent world.
In 2023, the report shows, Islamic Relief responded to more large-scale humanitarian crises than ever before. Conflict, natural disasters and extreme weather events devastated lives in many of the communities we support.
Our incredible donors gave more generously than ever, allowing us to reach a record number of people in need.
We supported 16.8 million people in 39 countries through our emergency responses, development work and campaigning.
While the commitment and selflessness of supporters who gave their time and money enabled us to raise a record £274.6 million and made our life-saving and life-changing work possible.
Our Annual Report details how Islamic Relief managed responses to major crises around the world, while supporting individuals and communities to take significant steps towards self-reliance through our development programming.
“Many of the crises to which we responded in 2023 continue to devastate lives, while global hunger, climate change, and faltering global governance snatch away precious development gains,” Waseem Ahmad, CEO of Islamic Relief Worldwide, says.
“In all the years I have served as a humanitarian, I have not experienced a more tumultuous time – nor have I ever felt prouder to be part of the Islamic Relief family, as each part of our global federation has stepped forward to play its part”.
We responded rapidly and effectively to humanitarian crises
As we look back on 2023, the overwhelming impression is of a year dominated by large-scale emergencies.
Crises erupted in Sudan and escalated in Gaza, with devastating consequences for ordinary families. Meanwhile, drought and its lasting aftereffects continued to grip the Horn of Africa. Major earthquakes hit Türkiye, Syria, Afghanistan and Morocco, while catastrophic flooding swept through communities in Libya.
Through 326 emergency projects, Islamic Relief responded rapidly and effectively to these crises and many more.
We provided 8.7 million people with food, water, shelter and other essentials after disasters struck and, in many cases, continued working with affected communities to rebuild homes, infrastructure and livelihoods in the months that followed.
In Gaza and Sudan, many of our staff faced the same challenges as the communities they serve, bravely working to support others while grappling with displacement and danger themselves.
In Yemen, which remains gravely affected by the global hunger crisis, Islamic Relief’s most extensive aid programme reached 2 million people in need each month with food aid. Working with the World Food Programme, we delivered food and cash vouchers to families in crisis.
We supported the long-term development of communities, families and individuals
In 2023, Islamic Relief continued building integrated sustainable development programmes that met multiple needs in the communities we serve, addressing the root causes of poverty and supporting individuals, families and communities on the road to self-reliance.
We ran 334 development projects around the world, improving access to education, healthcare, clean water and sustainable incomes for more than 4.6 million people.
Our report highlights a project in Niger’s capital, Niamey, which empowered 600 women to start and expand their own small businesses. The project included information-raising sessions on nutrition and hygiene, and trained local faith leaders on child protection and gender-based violence so they could raise community awareness.
As well as the financial boost from their businesses, the women who participated in the project reported an increase in their confidence and involvement in household decision-making around finances, children’s education and marriage.
In 2023, the generosity of our donors provided more than 91,900 orphaned children with life-changing sponsorship, while our seasonal Ramadan and qurbani programmes helped ease the hunger of some 3.5 million and 890,000 families respectively across more than 30 countries.
We supported over 2.8 people with healthcare interventions and provide better access to water, sanitation and hygiene services to more than 967,000 people.
We campaigned for positive and lasting change
Islamic Relief continued advocating for women and girls, refugees and displaced people and those hit hardest by the harmful effects of climate change in 2023, spending £1.4 million campaigning for positive and lasting change.
With the climate crisis continuing to cause and exacerbate emergencies around the world, it remained a major focus of our advocacy in 2023.
One year on from devastating flooding in Pakistan, we produced a report detailing recovery efforts and advocating for a stronger and fairer humanitarian and international response to climate-related disasters.
Islamic Relief’s landmark STRIDE project produced a major research paper on localisation and climate adaptation – key issues affecting many of the communities we serve. In 2023, our programmes supported over 205,000 people to become more resilient to the negative impacts of climate change.
In November, we engaged virtually with negotiations at the COP28 climate summit in the United Arab Emirates, drafting articles for the influential daily ECO newsletter published during the conference and speaking at a workshop organised around the event.
We plotted our course for the next decade
For Islamic Relief, 2023 was a year of introspection as well as action. As we prepared to mark our 40th anniversary in 2024, we reflected on the organisation’s journey from a small office in Birmingham, UK, to a major charity with a presence in more than 40 countries.
Over the decades, the support of so many generous individuals have enabled us to improve the lives of vulnerable people around the world, but there is so much still to do.
With this in mind, we launched our new Global Strategy for 2023-2033. At its heart lies the principle that to affect systemic change, we must increasingly address the root causes of inequality and injustice.
The strategy also lays out three ‘core outcomes’ – saving lives and reducing vulnerability to humanitarian crises, empowering communities to tackle poverty and vulnerability, advocating for change to the system and eliminating the global and local root causes of inequality and objectives within each goal to guide us towards achieving them.
As we reflect on 40 years of serving humanity, we recognise that our work is far from done. Poverty, injustice, inequality and suffering continue to devastate lives, and so, we recommit ourselves to increase our impact still further into the rest of 2024 and beyond, with the continued support of our steadfast staff, donors and partners.
We sincerely thank our incredibly generous donors, partners, and colleagues for their continued support.
Read more about how this support has made a difference to the lives of millions of vulnerable people around the world in Islamic Relief’s 2023 Annual Report.
Please help us continue our vital work assisting and empowering the world’s most vulnerable people. Donate now.
Israel’s repeated orders for civilians to move around Gaza are inhumane and causing epic human suffering, Islamic Relief says. Sick and wounded patients, elderly people, malnourished infants and people with severe disabilities are among hundreds of thousands ordered to move yet again in the past 10 days. They have nowhere safe to go, and the constant displacement is pushing more people into starvation and making cholera outbreaks increasingly likely.
Tens of thousands of people are fleeing in terror after Israel ordered people to leave parts of Gaza City in the past 48 hours, forcing people out of school shelters and shutting down hospitals as bombs rain down relentlessly. Last week Israel ordered around 250,000 people to leave Khan Younis in southern Gaza, most of whom are now living in desperate conditions.
The Israeli military has ordered civilians to move to so-called ‘safe zones’ but there is nowhere safe in Gaza and multiple people, including children, have been killed by strikes shortly after arriving in these zones. People are in fatal danger whether they stay or flee, with dozens reported killed today in yet another bombing of a school sheltering displaced families in Khan Younis.
Many of the people ordered to move have been displaced multiple times – they were first ordered to leave their homes and move to Rafah, then ordered to leave Rafah and move to areas such as Khan Younis, and now just weeks later they have been ordered to move yet again.
The latest mass displacement comes as a new report by UN Independent Experts warns that famine has now spread from northern Gaza into parts of the centre and south, as Israel continues to severely restrict and impede humanitarian aid.
Islamic Relief staff and partners report that many of the most vulnerable people are among those ordered to move, with hungry children, people in wheelchairs, hospital patients and elderly people all forced to flee on foot, with many walking miles in the middle of night to avoid the hot sun during the daytime. Some people are being pushed down the street on hospital beds as hospitals have had to evacuate hundreds of patients who are too sick to stand.
Every time people have to move they become more vulnerable to starvation and disease. Around 1.9 million people – 80% of Gaza’s entire population – are now trapped in increasingly shrinking parts of Gaza, where the humanitarian crisis is becoming more desperate by the day. Many families are sharing tents or sleeping in the open, or in the shells of damaged buildings that could collapse at any moment. There is little food, no clean water and extremely poor sanitation. Islamic Relief staff describe piles of garbage and streams of sewage outside people’s tents, with people having to wade through sewage water to reach food. There are very few toilets so women, girls, boys and men all have to share, leaving no privacy and increasing the risks to women and girls.
The horrific conditions have resulted in a spike in diseases such as Hepatitis A and acute diarrhoea over the past few weeks and the threat of fatal cholera outbreaks is increasing. Temperatures are rising during summer, making diseases even more likely to spread.
Islamic Relief continues to provide daily aid to displaced people, including distributing cooked meals and nutritional supplements, constructing latrines, distributing hygiene kits and delivering water. However, the ongoing attacks and Israeli restrictions on aid means nowhere near enough aid is reaching people in need. Islamic Relief continues to call for an immediate ceasefire and for all crossings into Gaza to be fully opened.