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A Dua and 4 Realistic Ways to Help Syrian Refugees Now (and it’s not just about your money)
Nada Shawish is Communications Specialist at Islamic Relief USA. “People are dying and they need our help. If we cannot see that, then we have no right to look away from the consequences of inaction.” –The Independent, September 3, 2015 The world is currently in the worst refugee crisis since World War II, and most of the refugees are Syrians. More than half of them are under the age of 18. There’s a lot of work to do to remedy this massive tragedy. While leaders bicker about how they’re going to reverse a crisis that started under their noses, there’s a lot we as individuals can do to help…
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How To Be Charity Itself: Mother Teresa’s International Day of Charity
Lina Hashem is communications specialist at Islamic Relief USA. Islam teaches us simply to always keep some charity in our everyday life, and to make our lives a blessing to others. But in a world filled with suffering, it’s hard to see what one person can do to help. And when we’re stuck in our daily routine, it might seem like the wrong time for charity, or even too late. It makes sense why we might feel that way in our hectic, troubled world. But next time you’re stuck in that way of thinking, remember this story … There was a little girl born in a city between the mountains…
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Hurricane Katrina: Islamic Relief USA’s First Big U.S. Disaster Relief Effort.
When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005, Elouise Kensey was traveling. Her home in New Orleans was destroyed, but she called herself lucky. “I have custody of my seven grandchildren, and had we stayed somebody would have died,” she told Islamic Relief workers after the storm. “A tree fell on the house. We were lucky, blessed , however you want to call it.” The Category 5 hurricane devastated large parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and its floodwaters surged right over and through the levees protecting New Orleans. More than 1,800 people were killed. Hundreds of thousands were left homeless, including Kensey and her family. Hurricane…
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Flood Waters Unexpectedly Drown Lives, Islamic Relief Renovates Homes in Bosnia
Fareeha Amir is Media Specialist at Islamic Relief USA. Maglaj was one of the first flood-affected regions in Bosnia when the worst flood in almost 100 years washed away homes and land. During the worst of the flooding, the water level in Maglaj climbed over 2 meters. It took four whole days for the water to recede. And when it did, 53-year-old Verica Marti only had the ceramic tiles left in her house. For two days and two nights, everything in her house was underwater. Everything needed repair—from the ceiling to the insulation. Walking among her soaked belongings, Verica remembers the despair she felt sifting and searching for anything she…
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Getting Gaza’s children off to a “Right Start” at school this year with IRUSA and ANERA
Laura McAdams is International Programs Coordinator at Islamic Relief USA. Back-to-school season is approaching and while many parents are preparing themselves for their children’s first day of school, only about a third of all four and five year olds in Gaza will be enrolled in preschool in the fall. The preschools that are available to children in Gaza are overcrowded and expensive: There are only four public, no-fee preschools in all of the West Bank and Gaza. Moreover, the quality of education children receive at these schools is reportedly poor. During school hours children have neither the opportunities or materials to be creative. They don’t even have places to play…
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Tunisia’s Farmers Are Rebuilding Greenhouses and Building Up Biodiversity with Islamic Relief USA
Laura McAdams is an International Programs Coordinator at Islamic Relief USA. Mohamad was the first person I met with on my recent monitoring and evaluation trip to Tunisia. He is the community leader of a cooperative of small-scale farmers in the southern town of Faouar. Mohamad comes from a long generational line of farmers. I followed him on a dry dirt path to a field where rows of greenhouses stood. Through two consecutive years, southern Tunisia has suffered strong storms that destroyed or severely damaged greenhouse structures in the country. Farmers weren’t able to salvage their crops and resume farming activities because they couldn’t find the money they needed to…
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TechGirls Are Tech-Social for Humanitarian Action at Islamic Relief USA
Nada Shawish is communications specialist at Islamic Relief USA. Fatima and Khadija are scrolling through their phones, checking tweets and Facebook statuses during a short break. “I am addicted to social media,” Fatima exclaims, her big eyes growing even bigger. She’s fifteen years old from Lebanon and she tells me that she dreams about working in digital technology someday. The girls are visiting Islamic Relief USA headquarters as part of the job-shadowing aspect of the TechGirls exchange program. TechGirls is a 3-week, international summer exchange program hosted by the U.S. State Department that selects promising girls from the Middle East and North Africa region and empowers them to to pursue…
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From One Idea, Many Toys — And Many Smiles
Two weeks ago, on Eid, trucks headed out across the country, filled to the brim with colorful gifts packaged at Islamic Relief offices—making Eid brighter for thousands of children. Islamic Relief USA’s fourth annual toy drive brought together close to 150 volunteers in 16 cities to organize events collecting more than 3,000 toys for children who might not receive gifts otherwise … and it all stemmed from the initiative of one 11-year-old boy, just three years ago. Rauf’s family was sitting together one night in their brightly decorated living room, enjoying the Ramadan atmosphere and looking forward to Eid. The subject turned to the many new refugees in their community…
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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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Islamic Relief USA Joins CARE to Show Human Face of Syrian Conflict
Sharif Aly is Advocacy Counsel at Islamic Relief USA There are close to 4 million Syrians living as refugees. 4 million. The number is staggering and it continues to grow. The United Nations has called the Syrian conflict, the biggest humanitarian crisis of this generation. With no end in sight and most of the media’s attention focused on military and political issues, Syrians caught in the midst of this crisis are being forgotten. Individual stories that create empathy between people are being lost. On Friday, March 27, Islamic Relief USA participated in “Life in Refuge” an event at Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C., organized by CARE and with other NGO partners…
