#Service
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National Volunteer Week with The Blue Shirts
April 17th through April 23th marks the celebration of volunteers Yusuf Azmi This National Volunteer Week, our volunteers will continue raising funds and awareness for our brothers and sisters in need across the globe through our IRaise Ramadan campaign. They will be assisting with hot meals distributions, meal pack events, hygiene kit assemblies, packaging food boxes, and supporting our fundraising events. National Volunteer week is taking place during the blessed month of Ramadan, one of the busiest times of the year at IRUSA. With the help of our volunteers this Ramadan, our aim is to assemble around 500k meals inshAllah! IRUSA carries out vital work around the world and here at home, responding…
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A Fatal Bronx Fire
Communities, led by West African families, mount responses and mourn A fire unseen for over 30 years It had been over three decades since a Bronx nightclub was set on fire claiming the lives of 87 people. The culprit spent his last days of a life sentence in 2016 behind bars. Early this January, countless families experience the horror of losing loved ones as a fire consumed the Twin Parks NW apartment building in the Bronx. Built as low-income housing in 1974, the building was home to ranging ethnicities. It most prominently featured West Africans who championed a tight-knit community. A Sunday morning of horror All residents of the complex…
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Turkeys for All
Some 82,000 people will be served this season via IRUSA’s turkey distributions One of Islamic Relief USA’s most popular seasonal programs took place just days before Thanksgiving. The 2021 U.S. Turkey Distribution strives to provide turkeys to families and households experiencing food insecurity or other difficulties. During a time of rising food costs, these turkeys can make all the difference between a festive meal or just getting by. The estimated price for a turkey this year across the country is a whopping $28! Partners across America worked with IRUSA to place turkeys in the hands of as many people we serve as possible. As is IRUSA’s custom, all of the 16,000-plus turkeys are halal,…
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Oct. 23 Proclaimed ‘Islamic Relief USA Day’ by Harris County Commissioner
Proclamation made during the Grand Opening ceremony of IRUSA’s Houston facility and Day of Dignity event. The City of Houston has a lot going for it. A vibrant downtown, great diversity (Muslims will feel very welcome with its numerous halal restaurants and mosques), and relatively low gas prices (just $2.89 per gallon of regular unleaded at one Mobil station not too far from the George Bush Intercontinental Airport). Now, the city has something else to celebrate; a new Islamic Relief USA building. The nonprofit humanitarian and advocacy organization held a grand opening ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 23, for its new volunteer dormitory on Lee Road in North Houston. The facility…
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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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IRUSA Rep Send Dispatch from the IFG20
IFG20 conference features triumphs and challenges recorded by IRUSA staff By Director Public Affairs Christina Tobias-Nahi WATCH WHAT A RELIEF POD INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS CHRISTINA TOBIAS-NAHI HERE NOW The Interfaith G20 Summit “Time to Heal: Peace among Cultures, Understanding between Religions” took place in mid September in Bologna, Italy and IRUSA was proud to have not only been an advisor to the local organizer of this event FSCIRE (a research institution that publishes, trains, serves, organizes, welcomes and communicates research in the field of religious sciences, with particular regard to Christianity, Islam and the religions with which they have been in contact) but also an active participant…
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Fighting Hunger and Inequalities in Food Access
Brown bag education series tackles a top priority By Konah Brownell, Intern in Communications and Public Affairs When it comes to addressing food insecurity, it’s not so much that we don’t have enough to go around. Rather, it has more to do with structural inequalities or inequities. That was the message from Dr. Laté Lawson-Lartego, an interim co-vice president of Global Programs at Oxfam, who was the featured guest in a virtual Islamic Relief USA “Brown Bag” webinar on Wednesday, July 7. “Poverty and food insecurity exist not because of the lack of resources or opportunity but because of inequality,” he said. During the one-hour session, Lawson-Lartego spoke about the…
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World Refugee Day 2021
Addressing the challenge to support refugees By Christina Tobias-Nahi According to the UN High Commission for Refugees 2022 Global Resettlement Needs Report released this month in recognition of World Refugee Day, for the sixth year in a row, Syrian refugees are among those with the highest resettlement needs, followed by refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Afghanistan, and Eritrea. As a result too of the pandemic, “many of those displaced are now faced with increased poverty, destitution and widespread protection risks, from exploitation, trafficking, sexual and gender-based violence, child labor, early marriage, to arrest, detention, deportation, and refoulement.” Islamic Relief USA has long worked tirelessly to…
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Qurbani the IRUSA Way
Putting Qurbani meat in the hands of our neighbors in 2021 With Eid Ul-Fitr in our rearview now begins Hajj season. And as Hajj season enters upon us, we can now shift focus to Islamic Relief’s largest global and domestic feeding program, Qurbani/Udhiyah. Qurbani is special commemoration of Prophet Ibrahim and Ismail’s willingness to sacrifice for Allah’s sake. This year is poised to be another successful facilitation of Allah’s barakah. This Qurbani season we look forward to maintaining and increasing impact.This year over 150,000 Qurbani’s will be managed in over 30 countries with the help of you. People may receive livestock meat of goats, cows, or lamb in a quantity…
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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…
