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What is Dhul Hijjah? The month of Dhul Hijjah is one of the holiest periods of the Islamic year. A month of increased spirituality, we witness two very special events which are Hajj and Eid ul Adha. These two events are devotion to Allah (SWT). Many people don’t know that the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah are better than all other days of the year including the days of Ramadan. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “There are no days on which righteous deeds are more beloved to Allah than these ten days” (Bukhari), meaning the (first) ten days of Dhul-Hijjah. [...]

International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for hastening gender equality. Important action is seen all over the world, as groups unite to celebrate women’s achievements or rally for women’s equality. This year, the campaign theme for International Women’s Day 2021 is ‘Choose To Challenge’. This stems from women challenging themselves to do things society claims they cannot. It is said, a challenged world is an alert world and from challenge always comes change. What is the history of International Women’s Day? International [...]

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is the ritual of cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and within communities worldwide where FGM is a common practice. It is estimated that more than 200 million women and girls worldwide have endured FGM and around 3 million girls are at risk of undergoing FGM every single year. The majority of these girls will experience this before they turn 15 years old. In response to this, the United Nations have dedicated a whole day on the 6th February 2021 called [...]

Building the capacity of Local NGOs in Yemen         Using our experience of delivering capacity building projects in conflict affected areas, HAD has recently begun implementation of a capacity development project in South Yemen.  The project will target LNGOs based in South Yemen and aim to provide capacity building services through the delivery of training and mentoring programmes in the areas of strategic planning and management, programme management and quality, donor relations and partnerships and financial management. As a result of the current COVID context, all the training will be conducted virtually at this stage. A key part [...]

Remote capacity building of Iraqi, Syrian & Yemeni NGOs to adapt to the COVID-19 context The Programmes Department at the Humanitarian Academy for Development (HAD) has recently completed a project which aimed to build the capacity of LNGOs in three countries to adapt to the challenging COVID-19 context. The implementation of the project resulted in capacity building of 27 NGOs across the three countries, with 335 staff engaging in the coaching/mentoring, 117 capacity building activities and 246 days of mentoring and coaching. The scope of the project was itself significant, particularly considering the short time scale of the project, but more [...]