Tuesday, September 26, 2006

The Agenda

“ Hunger, Health, Hygiene, and Education are among the most pressing problems on Muslim Aid’s agenda ”

As an Islamic organisation working within the parameters of the religion, one of our chief priorities is to deliver halal food and medicines and clean water to impoverished Muslims, who make up the majority of the world’s poor.

Yearly, our global Qurban project has successfully addressed the problem of providing sustainable supplies of food for poor Muslims around the world. Every year, Muslim Aid cans and ships Qurban meat to Muslim communities in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and the meat eke out their diets and improves nutrition throughout lean months of hardship.

Alternatively, Muslim Aid also uses donations to buy cattle from farmers in agrarian nations such as Sri Lanka and Indonesia for Qurban, simultaneously boosting village economies and providing nourishing meat. Muslim Aid also tackles hunger proactively through its Fast to Feed programmes, held in the holy month of Ramadan, where women, children, the disabled and the elderly in countries like Bangladesh, Somalia and Afghanistan are fed at least one vitamin-enriched meal a day.

Muslim Aid also stresses good hygiene and sanitation, which are important to curb killer diseases such as diarrhoea in impoverished communities and overcrowded refugee camps. Muslim Aid has built water wells providing clean water, invested in water purification programmes and latrines, and educated villagers on maintaining good hygiene in third-world countries like Somalia and Afghanistan.

Improving the welfare of orphans and children is also top priority for Muslim Aid, in line with Islamic injunctions to treat them with kindness. Our programmes such as Orphan Aid have funded school fees, uniforms, food, medical care and computer literacy skills training for underprivileged children in countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia and Palestine.

We are heavily involved in alleviating terrible conditions in war-torn regions as well, and have orchestrated local NGO networks to distribute food, medicines, and medical equipment to refugees and victims of war in Chechnya, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

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