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Youth Lead the Way in Disaster Response
When the news of a disaster strikes, what is your first reaction? Do I know anyone there? Does anyone I know know anyone there? Could this happen to me? Now, Facebook allows you to mark yourself “safe” in the event of a disaster. It’s a new feature that adds updates to your feed that let you know (rather casually) that your friends are okay while simultaneously sparking an eerie realization: This could happen to me. When I joined the staff of Islamic Relief USA, the way I reacted to disasters changed. I learned that when I heard the news of a disaster, I would put aside my other tasks and focus on the emergency: talking points for…
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From the Heart: Loving the Yateem
Islamic Relief USA’s Lina Hashem reports how one dedicated Islamic Relief USA donor has dedicated a significant part of his life to helping orphans in Afghanistan. Ahmad Sohail Ayam has an extra motivation to get to work every morning. Well, more like 41 extra motivations. They’re the orphans he sponsors. Ayam is from Afghanistan and so are his orphans, but that’s not why he sponsors them. It’s because he’s seen how the poor are living there, right now in the 21st century, after decades of war. Especially the yateem—the orphans. “There are people living in the 10th century,” he said. “I saw them last year when I was there. Poor…
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IRUSA Makes Education for Syrian Children a Priority
Enas was nine years old when her and her family fled Syria more than a year ago in January 2014. Their home is now a simple tent in eastern Lebanon in one of the more than four hundred informal settlements that are scattered throughout the country.
