In Ramadan 2023, Islamic Relief provided food packs to 1,402 households in Grozny, Chechnya. Our teams also distributed food vouchers that allowed rightsholders to buy the food items they needed at the store.  

One of the beneficiaries was Luiza Djabaeva, a 31-year-old mother of four. She works as a housewife, taking care of the children and the small flat her family lives in while her husband works.  

“These days, life is really becoming very hard. The prices grow very quickly, there is no stability. 

“Timur works as a taxi driver and his daily earnings (around $12) are spent on our everyday needs.  

“We also have children’s allowances (around $480) which we have started to get recently, and with the rise in prices almost all of it too is spent on food and clothes, medicine when children get ill and communal services ($60 per month).  

“My attempts to save up some money for improving our living conditions often fail. 

“During tough times, we have to depend on our relatives who share with us what they have.”    

Making Do With Little Space 

“Alhamdulillah, we have all the needed communal supplies here, the only problem is that we live in a former accommodation centre and our flat is 20 square meters. 

“There is no place to put a desk or an additional bed for children. Muhammad goes to school and he does his homework at his grandmother’s place which is on the same floor as ours.   

“Soon Safiya will go to school, in shaa Allah, and Khaleem and Khussein too and we are unable to arrange a place for them to do their home tasks and keep their textbooks. This is so frustrating!  

Hope for Ramadan during tough times 

“Ramadan is the time of hope and peace for all Muslims. It’s also the time of mercy and forgiveness, strengthening of our Iman, increasing our good deeds and improving our characters. So, we too are trying to do good deeds – fast and improve ourselves with Allah’s help! 

“During Ramadan, we wake up earlier to have suhoor. My children also are starting to fast little by little. For suhoor, we eat rice with milk, buckwheat or some fried eggs. Then we do our prayers. Every evening Timur does tarawih prayer at the nearby mosque. He sometimes has iftar with his friends.  

During Ramadan, we eat less because there is less time for meals. We eat dates for Iftar when we can afford them. During the rest of the year, I cook all possible dishes out of flour, e.g. some buns, chepalgash, khingalsh, galnash.  

“Children like them and this food also helps to save up some means for other needs, because children need clothes to wear and toys too. And when you buy a sack of flour the price for a kilo is less and you can save up a little.”        

How Islamic Relief Helps 

“The support we and the families like ours receive from Islamic Relief during Ramadan is very valuable. The food pack lasts for days during which we don’t have to bother ourselves about where to get the food from. It is a great relief, especially now, when the situation is so unstable.   

“With us, the Ramadan food pack will in sha Allah last for about a week or more, and it will help save money we would have to pay for communal services during the whole month. So, it is great support!   

“We have become part of the Islamic Relief Ramadan project thanks to our community leader Layla. She was our head when the dormitory was still an accommodation centre for IDPs (internally displaced persons) and continued her mission into the day. She knows the needs of people and does the best she can to help others.  

“We received a voucher from the IRR with which we could choose goods at a food store, and this was great because we chose what we wanted and bought more sweets for the month of Ramadan, which children appreciated most. I cannot tell you what can be improved because this aid was ideal! We couldn’t ask for more!  

“I have so many words of gratitude for all the people who made this project possible! May Allah grant you with His mercy multiple times!  And may He treat you as those He is pleased with!”