#PsychosocialResilience
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Sadaqa Doesn’t Decrease Wealth
What happens when a Muslims gives By Yusuf Azmi Power How powerful is charity? What does sadaqah achieve? These are all relevant questions when considering your giving. It’s the fuel that drives us to utilize our wealth to help others. Often when considering giving sadaqah, we can forget that there are in fact two sides to giving charity in Islam. Of course your donations will go towards helping others, alleviating pain and hardship for thousands across the world in need and making the world a better place. Providing crucial support such as food, clean water and disaster relief. Allah’s promise “Whoever relieves a believer’s distress of the distressful aspects of…
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Behind the Vest: Emergency Response to Hurricane Ida
IRUSA’s own Araif Yusuff discusses Hurricane Ida relief August 2021: One of the most challenging disaster response months IRUSA has faced since the inception of our humanitarian mission and effort. On one hand, more than 500,000 Afghan refugees were suddenly displaced in Afghanistan or in foreign countries that were put on notice of their arrival just days before–they fled turmoil and increased violence that came on the heels of the U.S. withdrawal after 20 years in the country. On the other hand, category 4 Hurricane Ida slammed against the southern shores of America, with the gusto of the second most-damaging hurricane in Louisiana history. More than 1,000,000 people were left…
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U.N. Women’s Conference features IR Reps
Bringing perspective to sustainable development By Christina Tobias-Nahi, May Hashem, Minhaj Hassan Making a Difference Women making extraordinary differences is a common outcome in many programs that Islamic Relief administers around the world and likes to showcase. The Islamic Relief journey with Gender Equality was institutionalized through the Gender Justice policy developed back in 2014, and was presented at a series of global stakeholder roundtables across many continents. A larger campaign roll out was planned for 2020 but events were postponed due to COVID-19. Meanwhile Islamic Relief has conducted a gender review, mapping their gender empowerment and gender protection (including gender based violence, early marriage etc.) related programs over the…
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Burned Out With Nowhere To Go
Already Combatting COVID, Fires Are Displacing Refugees Across The Globe Originally published 3/5/21 on G20 Interfaith Forum IRUSA Director of Communications & Public Affairs, Christina Tobias-Nahi In October, I risked flying during the pandemic to see my father who lives alone in the Rockies. Not only was I checking on his mental well-being after 8 months of being quarantined, but suddenly there was a new danger on the horizon – smoke-clogged skies triggering respiratory issues for older people and a fire encroaching within mere miles of his home. Where would he go, especially with COVID raging? Fortunately for him, early precipitation and winter snows finally brought relief before he had…
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Racism as a Public Health Crisis
Health experts weigh-in structural racism’s brutal effects The disproportionate number of people from racial minority groups who’re suffering –and dying–from the coronavirus pandemic is hardly a surprise. In fact, accoriding to one expert, Kameelah Mu’Min Rashad of the Muslim Foundation, the health care disparities experienced by them are linked to systemic racism. “They are always intertwined,” she said. Simply put, it’s a pandemic within a pandemic. That was just one of the revelations expressed during Islamic Relief USA’s webinar “Racism as a Public Health Crisis,” on Jan. 19. Along with Rashad, the 80-minute session featured Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a Michigan-based epidemiologist who has frequently appeared on CNN. ‘Cumulative Deprioritization’ More…
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Poem: Water for Life
Award Winning Poet Tariq Touré pays tribute to the impact of water projects. For the dried mouths of newborns And the cops that wait ages To taste the moisture of rain As the clouds form to perform And dance of hope above the heads Of entire communities thinned out From famine and drought and thirst That earthquakes them awake In nights that feel like eternity We work for water Water for life Water for now Water for forever For families that have forgotten The taste of fresh mango and yam And the farms waiting With trembling hands For the first field to be fed Hoping that beads of water Give…
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Srebrenica: A Look at our Beginning in Bosnia
IRUSA reflects on Bosnia and families looking for hope this Qurbani season. In 1995, one of the most harrowing tragedies took place in Srebrenica, Bosnia. Over 8,000 Bosnian men and boys were massacred, in just 5 days. Thousands of women went missing and were the victims of mass rape and torture. The children of those rape victims still have no legal recognition to this day. The Srebrenica genocide is one of the most brutal and horrifying events of our lifetime, but it is widely erased from our collective memory. Till this day, bodies continue to be excavated and buried, giving families an opportunity to finally pray Janaza on their loved ones and bury them honourably.…
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COVID-19 Through the Lens of Our Elderly: What Do We Really Need?
A chance for us to gain perspective from our beloved seniors A reality check Our elderly loved ones are the most vulnerable and most likely to suffer death from COVID-19. We must first protect our elderly by distancing as much as possible. Unfortunately, we will not be there to hold their hands if they are hospitalized. We have all heard these sentences and many more circulating cyberspace. We have also read dozens of articles suggesting ways we can help our elderly population while observing social distancing. However, what can go missing from this abundance of information and opinion is the very perspective of those we are trying so desperately to…
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Revisiting the Syrian Refugee Crisis: Hopes and Frustrations with Marwa Aly
A journal entry from Trinity College Muslim Chaplain Marwa Aly during her time in Jordan with Syrian refugees IRUSA invited a group of dynamic women community leaders on a visit to Islamic Relief USA’s Projects in Jordan serving Syrian refugees. It expose them, and educate them first hand about IRUSA’s women’s empowerment projects in Jordan, as well as the refugee projects. It was an opportunity to not only meet the staff and volunteers who make the delivery of humanitarian aid possible, but to come face-to-face with the very people we serve. How Perspectives can Change Today was both an uplifting and perspective-shifting day as we traveled to both Ramtha and…
