Three consecutive years of droughts and flooding have left half of the population of Malawi in Southern Africa needing food aid. Balaka, in the southern region of the country, is one of the worst-affected districts.

Thousands of farmers did not harvest enough food to feed their families this year; either because of the lack of rain or an outbreak of army worm, which destroys crops.

Islamic Relief Malawi joined forces with the Muslim Association of Malawi to find those who have been the worst-affected and are receiving no other help.

Saina Ali in Taibu Village looks after four orphaned grand-children; Tashida (5), Hanif (8), Gift (11) and Fajra (13). She has a small piece of land and also does piece work on other people’s farms.

She doesn’t have the strength to do too much work as she is old. She doesn’t know her age, just that she is old.

This year she only produced three bags of maize, instead of the usual six, because ‘armyworm’ caterpillars destroyed her crops.

“It makes me sad when there is no food as there is no one who can help me,” she explained. “The children cry when they are hungry and I can’t do anything about it. I get sick often when there is not enough food and do not have the strength to do much for the children.”

 Saina is normally happy during Ramadan because, as she explains, “It is a rare month of mercy. I fast every year, even when I am not feeling well because I am grateful to Allah.” But she was concerned that she would struggle to be able to find enough food to eat during Ramadan.

Islamic Relief gave her a food parcel containing 20 kg of  maize flour, 10 kg of rice, 3kgs of beans, 3 kgs of sugar, 1kg of salt and 1 litre of cooking oil.

“This food pack has really helped me as I will no longer have to struggle to find food for Iftar,” she explained. “I will make a nice soft maize porridge to break fast and I can take sweet tea in the morning for suhoor, which is my favourite think to take in the early morning.”

Yahya Said (38) lives in the same village. He and his wife Doris (30) have four young children; Ruqman (6), Ahmed (8), Jazira (10) and Bashir (12).

Yayha is not able to farm as he is blind and his wife has difficulty walking due to contracting Polio as a child.

“This year my wife was only able to harvest four bags of maize because of the lack of rain and this only lasted four months,” said Yayha. “Now we are dependent on well-wishers.”

Yahya SAid receiving his family’s food pack.

“We cannot afford to send the children to school and they are hungry. We go to sleep on an empty stomach and it’s hard for everyone.”

Now, Yayha and his family are relieved as Ramadan will be much easier with the food parcel.

“We are happy to be able to break fast properly with good food and will have maize or rice porridge with sugar for Iftar,” said Yayha.

He added: “As Muslims, this month is very special and a blessing for us all. We are happy with what we have received, as it is from Allah.

“Allah should continue to bless Islamic Relief because of the good work being done in Malawi.  Please continue to help us and others in need. I ask Allah to reward the donors for this help.”

Source: Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW)

Outstanding climate change project is recognised by The Charity Awards

A three-year £3 million programme supporting more than 100,000 people to protect themselves against disasters and climate change has made the shortlist at The Charity Awards 2017.

The programme reached out to remotely located people in one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change and natural disasters.

Communities in north west and southern coastal areas of Bangladesh have been battered by heavy rains and flash flooding, cutting off access and putting people, housing, livestock and crops at severe risk.

Islamic Relief’s Enhancing Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Resilience Project (ECCADR) has helped people in remote locations to prepare for potential disasters and to adapt to environmental changes by excavating canals for irrigation, constructing roads for better access, building biogas plants and introducing early warning systems ahead of cyclones or floods.

Local representatives have been trained to respond effectively to disasters in their communities, implementing innovative solutions and early alert systems that are benefiting 27,000 households (around 170,000 people).

Around 2,400 vulnerable households received first-hand training in a variety of new ways to make a living, from fish farming to tailoring, with support to become self-sufficient.

Where a significant proportion of a fisherman’s income, for example, might have been used to rent his boat from someone else, the programme would support him to buy his own.

Key achievements:

• Over the course of the project the average family monthly income almost trebled.
• 97% of newly employed methods of earning a living are continuing successfully.
• Previously it had been impossible for people to have personal savings but for most people this has changed, with one woman reporting personal savings of 100,000 Bangladeshi Taka (£969).

The winner in the category of international aid and development will be announced at the awards in London on June 8.

Find out more about our work in Bangladesh here.

Source: Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW)

Our latest annual report from Syria shows that last year alone Islamic Relief supported more than 3 million people across Syria and neighbouring countries Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon.

With the conflict now in its seventh year, more than half of the Syrian population have fled their homes with 13.5 million people in desperate need of humanitarian support.

Islamic Relief CEO Naser Haghamed said: “The greatest challenge for our brave teams on the ground in Syria is that the security situation restricts their movement making it hard to reach besieged areas in dire need of assistance.

“But Islamic Relief’s greatest accomplishments are our ability to access zones reached by no other aid agencies and the strength of support we are giving to health care projects in Syria.

“We could not do this vital work, or reach so many people, without the incredible support we have had from donors around the world.”

Islamic Relief’s programmes last year totalled £43.5m, with £30.5m of that spent within Syria and the remainder delivered across Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon.

• Our teams on the ground distributed food parcels to 450,000 people in Aleppo, Idlib, Moadamyah and Lattakia as well as to those trapped in the hard-to-reach and besieged areas of Madaya and Ghouta.
• Our Ramadan and Qurbani food distributions reached half a million displaced Syrians.
• Our partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP) allowed us to support 13,000 families in Aleppo and Idlib with monthly food assistance.
• And our supplementary feeding programme is boosting nutrition for 20,000 children aged under five.

Islamic Relief field staff provided more than 100,000 people in Syria with clean water and sanitation, and items including tents, blankets and winter clothing helped 150,000 people in northern Syria to survive the bitterly cold winter.

Among our proudest achievements is a programme to alleviate the psychological suffering of children by providing counselling, educational support and child-friendly spaces for around 900 children in northern Aleppo.

Source: Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW)

Nutrition activities in ETHIOPIA continued this week with 898 children screened and 476 moderate malnourished among them were admitted for assistance.

Supplementary food was provided to 265 individuals

Livestock feeding, maintenance of water points and water trucking along with provision of water treatment sachets continued during the week.

In SOMALIA, 350 food packs and 150 NFIs were distributed in Alwaq (Gedo region) benefitting 2,100 individuals.

Water trucking and primary health care activities continued this week.

More info about East Africa Crisis:

• Zainab Mohammad Warsame was forced to flee her home with 10 children including a daughter who is epileptic after she lost all of her livestock because of the drought.

Click link https://www.facebook.com/IslamicReliefMalaysia/vid…

• Our team is on the ground in Somalia doing a food distribution to the IDPs. These are your donations in action!

Click link https://www.facebook.com/IslamicReliefMalaysia/vid…

Think Humanity, Think ISLAMIC RELIEF!

Dotted around Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia, are camps where countless desperate families arrive in search of food and water. It was at one of these camps, where teams from Islamic Relief regularly distribute food packs, that I first met Fatouma.

Fatouma, from a village in the Burhakaba region, around 250km from Mogadishu, told me her harrowing story of survival through the catastrophic drought.

“The drought has been with us for years, but in the last 12 months things became unbearable. My people are farmers, and our lives depend on our livestock and the land. The lack of rain meant nothing grew, which meant there was no food for the cattle to eat – which ultimately resulted in our remaining cattle dying very quickly. We had no choice, but to leave home in search of food and water.

Fatouma and her six children left their village with nothing but the clothes on their backs. The journey was an arduous one, which they undertook on foot. Every now and then they were able to get on public transport, only to be quickly kicked off once it transpired that they had no money.

“It was excruciating to walk in the blazing heat, and there were times when we felt like giving up, but we knew we had to keep on going, if we wanted to survive. My children became ill because we couldn’t feed them and the bodies of my three youngest started to swell badly.”

Unknown to Fatouma, the swelling was an indicator of severe malnutrition. Sadly, one by one, her young children Nooratu, Khadiju and Usman died whilst on the journey to Mogadishu. They were buried in different villages en route, where they relied on the good will of local villagers, to raise money for their burials.

It took Fatouma 10 days to reach Mogadishu.

When they finally arrived, they faced another desperate situation – a camp with little sanitation. And with limited food donated by the locals, who themselves were struggling to survive as a result of the drought.

Life at the camps is dire. With families constantly arriving to seek refuge and aid. In the last 48 hours, over 200 people had arrived for sanctuary.

We didn’t speak the same language but from looking into Fatouma’s eyes, it was clear that she was still in a deep state of shock, a palpable sense of loss and hopelessness.

This devastating story was a recurring theme in the famine of 2011, parents were too weak to bury their children, bodies were simply left on the roadside. This will become a widespread reality if we do not act now.

Source: Islamic Relief UK