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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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‘Finding a Way’: IRUSA Team Reports From Nepal
When the Islamic Relief USA team landed in Kathmandu, Nepal, four days after the earthquake in April, they were surprised to see that only one out of 10 or 20 houses showed signs of damage. Then they got into a car to drive closer to the epicenter. As the winding roads became steeper and more treacherous, the rubble piled higher on each side. There, they found deep gashes in the Earth, and entire villages flattened. “The saddest thing is that those affected the worst are usually the poorest people,” said IRUSA’s Ridwan Adhami. “They don’t have much to lose, and they still lost it all.” What they didn’t lose was…
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Syria’s Four Years: Are You Paying Attention to Your Role?
Nada Shawish is a Communications Specialist at Islamic Relief USA. I visited Jordan and Lebanon close to the beginning. The conflict had only begun to get deadly, and I was standing in Zataari camp in Jordan. The camp was filling with people just escaping from Syria—arriving with so little, living in the desert with a flimsy tent, stifled by heat and choked by dust, with absolutely nothing but the clothes on their back. I thought then, these people might not make it. So many of these people will not be able to survive these brutal conditions. I could barely stand or breathe after just an hour at Zataari. Zataari camp…
