* The situation in both Gaza and the West Bank remains volatile with rockets continuously being fired from both sides.

* The Palestinian Red Crescent has said that it has provided medical assistance to over 1,795 people across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Two teenage Islamic Relief volunteers offered a helping hand to FareShare’s annual food collection to help those in need this Christmas.

Two of our keen volunteers, Hosaam Safdar and Muhit Chowdhury, both aged 19 – supported this year’s FareShare’s food drive at Tesco in Whitechapel, East London, which took place over three days in early December.

Working alongside FareShare, our volunteers were in store greeting customers as they came in with a list of items most needed by charities. The aim was to encourage shoppers to buy items and donate them to FareShare at the end of their shop.

In just three hours our volunteers collected 32 crates of food. FareShare estimates that equates to enough food to make 600 meals.

Hossam said:

“I felt absolutely amazing. It was great to see how many people just looked at our stall, and immediately brought food without us asking.

“So many people from different faiths, just coming to support the cause. I think visually, when people saw how much food was being donated, it inspired people to take part which really demonstrates the fruits of our efforts and how our efforts really inspired people.

“A lot of Muslims said to us ‘Jazakullahu khayran’ (May God reward you with good), as they were touched to see how confident we were in putting ourselves out there to people and getting them engaged in the cause.

“Alhamdulillah this is something I would love to do more often, to really get people involved in helping the homeless in our locality.”

FareShare is a national charity who work with all sectors of the food supply chain – producers, manufacturers and retailers – to help feed those who are vulnerable and in need.

Islamic Relief’s National Community Fundraising and Volunteering Manager, Zia Salik, said:

“We are pleased to support FareShare and its commitment to helping charities provide much-needed food to those in need.”

FareShare will now distribute all the groceries collected to local homeless shelters, food banks, hostels and refuges across the country to help those most in need this Christmas.

Steffie Clement, Partnerships Officer at FareShare, said:

“At FareShare we’d like to thank Islamic Relief for helping to support our annual food drive. Volunteers across the UK collected an incredible amount of food donations from the public – all going to help feed people in need.”

FareShare not only help the homeless but those experiencing food poverty, regardless of religion, race or gender. They give food to homeless hostels, children’s breakfast clubs, lunch clubs for older people, domestic violence refuges and community cafés.

 

Young people across the UK and overseas have raised the record-breaking sum of almost £1.17m for Charity Week – by far the largest total in the Week’s 14-year history.

The money raised – £1,169,285.48 so far – will be used by Islamic Relief to provide aid and assistance to vulnerable children around the world. The provisional total beats by over £100,000 last year’s then-record-breaking £1,057,220.12.

This year’s Charity Week, which ran from 23 to 29 October had the theme of Let’s Build Together. Thousands of young people fundraised in more than 200 universities, schools, colleges, youth groups and businesses across the UK, Canada, Germany, Qatar, the United States and Australia.

The record-breaking sum brought together the totals raised by students in London, the UK and internationally. The total was revealed on Sunday 26 November during Islamic Relief’s Charity Week International Annual Dinner at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Glasgow, attended by 400 guests from across the UK and from overseas.

 Imran Madden, UK Director of Islamic Relief, said:

“This is a fantastic achievement. Thousands of students and volunteers across the UK and around the world have given of their time and energy to fundraise for Charity Week, working so hard and so creatively to achieve so much for those children and young people who have so little.”

The provisional UK regional totals raised for Charity Week are as follows (as of Wednesday 29 November 2017):

• Scotland: £120,728.71
• Wales & West of England: £50,830.80
• North of England: £93,846.22
• The Midlands: £117,975.30
• London: £464,026.47
• South of England: £ 91,143.62

The volunteers raised the money by organising and participating in a wide range of activities and challenges including mountain climbing, football tournaments, fashion shows and Jungle Runs to 40 fundraising dinners, street collections in 43 city centres, bake sales, fundraising auctions and even a Mad Hatter tea and cake party. 

The fundraising auctions proved particularly popular, with a banana selling for £3,000 at the UCL dinner and auction, making it possibly the world’s most-expensive fruit. Elsewhere, 18 brick-themed cakes were auctioned for a cumulative total of £82,662 and a canvas painting at the University of Exeter sold for £2,500.

As part of Charity Week, the young people choose where the money goes to by selecting the Islamic Relief projects to benefit from the proceeds. Projects being funded by Charity Week include:

• Providing essential emergency aid to children suffering in Myanmar
• Providing equipment and medicines for multiple malnutrition clinics across Yemen
• Providing 20,000 children with screening, speech therapy and hearing aids in Gaza
• Rehabilitating and equipping a school for 1,000 children in Malawi
• Providing paediatric clinics across Somalia with medicines and equipment
• Protecting refugee children in Greece from exploitation and facilitating their migration to the UK.

 Ahthsham Ashraf, National Director of Charity Week UK, said:

“This year our volunteers have exceeded all expectations and we have had an amazing Charity Week. At our International Dinner volunteers joined us from all around the world to showcase and celebrate our amazing achievement this year.

“I am grateful and thankful to all the volunteers who have given so much to this this amazing project and made it such a success.”

 Ahmed Shaikh, International Director of Charity Week, added:

“People often complain about the youth of today and sharing examples of how different this generation is to ones gone by. However, Charity Week 2017 showed over a million examples of what the youth of today can achieve when they work together to serve orphans and needy children around the world. 

“This year the world witnessed phenomenal young people doing phenomenal things from all across Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Germany, USA, Canada, Qatar and Australia, all for the sake of those children who rely on them to unite.

“It is narrated that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ described the Ummah as bricks of a building each one supporting one another. This year we witnessed how these bricks came together and built hospitals, schools, malnutrition clinics and shelter for those orphans and needy children who need it most.

“We’ve built on our vision of unity, built a team and year-on-year we continue to build that hope that is changing the world. Nowhere else do you see the youth so energised, so passionate, and so dedicated to work for one amazing cause.

“We’ve celebrated what we built in Charity Week 2017 and will build on these achievements as planning for Charity Week 2018 begins now.”

Since 2003 Charity Week has raised more than £6.7m for 49 projects helping more than 140,000 orphans and needy children worldwide.

Source: Islamic Relief UK

Islamic Relief is scaling up its support for humanitarian partner organisations working on the ground to provide vital aid to some of the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled the conflict in Myanmar to Cox’s Bazar in neighbouring Bangladesh.

We are pleased to announce PULSE Bangladesh as our first local partner, approved by the Bangladeshi authorities to work in this current crisis in the Cox’s Bazar camps. Thanks to PULSE and other partners, we are scaling up the emergency response programmes we fund to reach a total of 300,000 people or around 50,000 families in the next few weeks – with food packs, shelter and hygiene supplies.

Islamic Relief’s Head of Asia, Masud Siddique, says:

“We could not have responded to this crisis on such a scale without the generous support of so many donors around the world. We are delighted that with PULSE we are working with a local partner that is experienced in working in Cox’s Bazar and aware of the acute needs of the displaced population. This partnership will help us widen our reach in this severe humanitarian crisis.

“In the coming months, we will identify a variety of locations where we can work with PULSE Bangladesh to serve those who need our support the most, while also building the capacity of PULSE to deliver aid well into the future during emergencies such as this.”

Alongside this partnership we will also be funding a number of international aid organisations to deliver emergency aid to those people that have fled Myanmar into Bangladesh since August 2017.

 

Notes for editor

Islamic Relief works in over 30 countries around the world delivering long-term, sustainable programmes to help communities lift themselves out of poverty and acting to save lives during humanitarian crises.

We have a long and proud history of working in Bangladesh since 1991. We have delivered emergency assistance as well as development projects that include a major focus on developing communities, helping them to lift themselves out of poverty and safeguard against natural disasters. These projects include an award-nominated, UK Government-funded climate change project. Over the past 26 years we’ve stood firm beside the people of Bangladesh and supported them through all major disasters such as floods, cyclones and droughts.

 

Source: Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW)

Islamic Relief in Kosova has finalised the project ‘Access to Clean Water’, which provides the local population of Kamenice Municipality with access to clean and drinkable water.

The water system will provide access to 65 households with around 400 residents, including 120 children under 14 years old.

There are now more than 65 million people in the world who have been forced from their homes due to conflict or disaster (UNHCR), many of them struggling to meet their basic needs of food, water, shelter and access to essential services. However, the psychological trauma of their displacement is less visible, and often overlooked.

A generation of young people have had their lives uprooted, and Islamic Relief is deeply concerned about the long-term impact on their mental health. Our projects engage vulnerable children and adolescents, particularly those who are out of school, those suffering neglect, orphans and survivors of violence. Some of these children suffer from nightmares and bedwetting, for others the symptoms are more severe.

Islamic Relief’s care programme includes providing safe spaces for women and children, and running activities such as play, music, drama, art therapy, sports and open days. Since the start of the Syrian conflict, we have provided psychosocial support to over 10,000 children, but with more than eight million children affected by the crisis, our work has only just begun.

 

“I tried to put an end to this miserable life”

For Kamar, a 24-year-old Syrian mother of two, an Islamic Relief psychosocial support programme did nothing less than save her life. She managed to escape Syria alive, but like so many refugees, everything she had previously lived for had been shattered. Kamar struggled with severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Major Depression Disorder (MDD) that almost led her to take her own life.

“I felt sorrow, suffering alone with no assistance, with my two children. I tried several times to kill myself or to kill my own children to put an end to this miserable life,” she told Islamic Relief.

After Kamar’s home in Aleppo was bombed, she made a dangerous journey to escape. Passing through a sea of dead bodies, she witnessed her father being murdered as she held her young daughter Doha close, covering her eyes. Kamar managed to escape and settle in Lebanon, but the trauma left her incapable of giving her children a safe, loving home. Instead, she became prone to anger and physical abuse.

Islamic Relief intervened with 11 specialist sessions of psychotherapy and through a combination of counselling and temporary medication, she was able to overcome her trauma by 95%. She regained control of her anxiety and developed relaxation techniques.

“The psychotherapist was highly supportive and friendly,” she said. “My anger toward my family is still there, but at lower frequency. The sessions were very positive for me.”

Kamar is now able to hug her children and give them the affection they need. Now, they too can begin to heal.