moh

How to use this toolkit This toolkit will help equip you and your supporters to share the Islamic Climate Change Declaration with Muslims, people of faith and other stakeholders around the world. It is a simple and easy to use guide to get supporters to champion climate justice in your local community on a global issue that affects us all. Together, we hope this toolkit will help build a greener Muslim community globally which will act on the verse in the Qur’an where Allah reminds us that: “He is the One who made you inheritors of the earth, and He raised [...]

Rising Healthy & Prosperous Communities Water is essential for life. Yet more than 1.1 billion people have no access to clean water. For some countries the problem is scarcity of water, whilst in others it is the quality of water. Unclean water can be fatal as it spreads diseases and illnesses such as cholera and diarrhoea. Poor hygiene practices and access to latrines also increases risk of disease. Over a third of the world’s population does not have access to adequate sanitation. Islamic Relief aims to give people all over the world water for life. We don’t just hand out water [...]

Unlocking the Chains of Debt In the 1950s and 1960s, poor countries were lent large amounts of money for the sake of economic development. The lending, by rich countries, was prudent with fewer strings in the beginning since many western countries were keen to support developing countries as being their potential allies in the cold war. They lent money regardless of whether developing countries direly needed it or not and even aided and abetted oppressive regimes. So, much of the present “debt stock” of the poor countries was the result of reckless or self-interested lending by the rich countries to poor [...]

Update The situation in Albania is deteriorating by the day. The needs of the people are great and require our full support. When looking at the needs of the people of Kosova, it is extremely important for us to bear in mind that by providing food or clothing our responsibilities do not end there. The refugees have no homes, no possessions nor any means of earning a livelihood. The emotional trauma endured is great and many will require counselling to overcome their horrific experiences. Islamic Relief is committed to support the immediate as well as the long term needs of refugees. [...]

What are Harmful Traditional Practices and where do they come from? There is no clear and universally agreed definition of Harmful Traditional Practices (HTPs). HTPs stem from value-based discrimination against particular groups of people, and they challenge the human rights of the people affected by them. The roots of HTPs are in particular cultural and social norms and beliefs, and particular interpretations of religion. These lead to unequal power relations between women and men (gender inequality), and male domination throughout society. There is some contention about the inclusion of ‘traditional’ when looking at harmful practices, but the full term ‘harmful traditional [...]

The Islamic Relief Response Islamic Relief has experienced many disasters and emergencies within its relief and humanitarian work. We initially believed that the current crisis in Syria would only have an impact at national level. Like other humanitarian organisations, we could not predict the extent to which the whole region would be affected. Since the crisis started in 2011, Islamic Relief has provided support for hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees who have fled to Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. As the crisis and the humanitarian conditions inside Syria continued to worsen, we decided to expand our operations to inside Syria, using [...]

Programmes conducted by Sameen Zafar, University of Nottingham, UK. Waqf (plural: Awqāf), is a type of charitable giving in the form of an endowment that is dedicated for the sake of God (Allah), to serve the public good. It is a mechanism that is based in Islamic tradition and has historically been widely utilised across the world as a form of ongoing charity (Sadaqah Jariyah). This has taken many forms, from the building of schools and hospitals from properties that have been designated as Waqf, through to the disbursement of funds towards community projects, earned from Waqf property rent or hire. [...]

Liebe Leserin, lieber Leser, 2015 war ein Jahr mit einigen Herausforderungen: Während in Syrien der Krieg weiter tobte und wir unsere Hilfe dort sowie in den Nachbarländern weiter fortsetzten, kamen viele Flüchtlinge – oft unter Lebensgefahr – nach Deutschland. Daher setzten wir unseren Fokus 2015 auch auf die Flüchtlingshilfe innerhalb Deutschlands wie auch auf die Transitländer Griechenland, Italien und Mazedonien. Dank der neu gegründeten Islamic Relief Kleiderkammer konnten wir den Flüchtlingen in Deutschland zunächst einmal verstärkt mit dringend benötigten Sachspenden helfen. Dabei stoßen wir bis heute auf überwältigende Unterstützung – durch Unternehmen wie DHL oder Simwert wie auch durch ehrenamtliche Einzelpersonen [...]

Welcome to the Autumn Issue of the IR Academy E-Newsletter IR Academy Leads the Establishment of New Consortium The Consortium can be used as a platform for developing training material for the humanitarian sector, addressing current gaps in the sector. With six other members bringing together academia and humanitarian and development organisations from the UK, USA and South Africa this is an exciting time for Islamic Relief. The Consortium includes, in addition to Islamic Relief the following core member organisations: ActionAid, Plan International, Coventry University, Praekelt.org, Osman Consulting and ACTION Support Centre. The process of formulating the consortium has already opened [...]

Learning Brief: Gender Study In October 2015, qualitative programmes was conducted using focus group discussions and interviews with beneficiaries. The objective was to assess how the programme may have influenced gender roles. In addition, the programmes aimed to identify the barriers people encountered when accessing basic public services and humanitarian aid, and provided an insight into the individual experiences and challenges faced by women and men, and boys and girls. The limited number of interviewees, however, only provides a snapshot of the situation of Syrian refugees in Irbid. The findings from the study aim to contribute to the growing body of [...]