We have been supporting orphans in Gaza, Palestine, for many years now. At the moment, Islamic Relief Worldwide is sponsoring over 8,000 orphans in Gaza. This work is done in partnership with a number of local organisations on the ground that are well-experienced in the safeguarding of children and ensuring they receive the best chance at a bright future.

Your sponsorship allows for the life of the same orphan to be continuously transformed long term, which means they are able to truly rise above their circumstances, gain the opportunities they deserve, and build a better life for themselves and their families.

By providing access to nutritional services, health care, water solutions, education and family livelihood support, as well as striving to tackle critical issues, including ongoing trauma, poverty and inequality, we’re both transforming futures as well as saving lives.

Yes. We are still able to help families through our orphan sponsorship program, even in the current crisis when support is most needed and less easy to deliver.

The way we support our families is through a cash transfer onto a bank card, through IR staff visits, psychosocial support to the children, prioritising them as most vulnerable for hot meals, food parcels and other supplies, and prioritising them in other programs. In terms of other non-food items, we are providing hygiene and dignity kits, water, and sanitation facilities.

Through our partnership with the World Food Program (WFP), we are delivering emergency food supplies to Gaza. Together we cook daily hot and ready-to-eat meals for nearly 150,000 families who have fled their homes and are now living in overcrowded shelters, at risk of malnutrition and disease. Since the partnership began in early 2024, we have so far cooked and distributed over 7.5 million hot meals together.

We prioritise our orphan families in all these programs mentioned above. Where possible we are also implementing the Eid Gift Program, for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. 

Although our 1-1 donor and orphan matching process usually takes 1-2 weeks after you start your donation, please note there will be a delay for any newly sponsored orphans in Gaza due to the current crisis. This means the process will take longer than the average processing time.

We expect this process may take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months; however we will do everything in our power to ensure the registration of new orphans in our system is completed as soon as possible. 

Due to the nature of the situation in Gaza, our staff, volunteers and partner organisations are focused on providing aid and distributing supplies on a daily basis. Once the situation allows for our team to continue safely reaching our sponsored orphans and registering even more orphans in our system, we will pair you with an orphan and transfer your collected donations. Your collected donations are in trusted hands with almost 40 years of legacy. 

There is a severe cash crisis, no cash has come into Gaza in 7 months, so there is a severe liquidity problem. Also, the number of functional banks is deteriorating. However, some shops are assisting by exchanging cash for the families. There is some semblance of functionality in some areas, and they are able to get cash.

Islamic Relief is using the World Food Programme (WFP) system and ATM cards for people to withdraw funds in Gaza, which is still operating in places where ATMs remain undamaged.

Each guardian for the orphan has been issued with a bank card; the cash transfer happens through funds being logged onto the card. In ordinary circumstances, the funds would then be drawn and used for essentials such as medical needs, food etc. Currently, the payment system for Gaza is largely working. Transfers are going through, and the cards are working.

There are huge challenges with the current crisis. The World Food Programme (WFP) has indicated that there are some food and supplies left but these are likely to run out soon unless the small amount of aid getting in across the Rafah border crossing from Egypt can be scaled up.

UNRWA, the main UN agency providing humanitarian aid to the population of Gaza, has donated all its remaining stock of flour to bakeries across the Gaza Strip to enable them to produce bread at lower prices.

We, at Islamic Relief are also calling on the international community to ensure that adequate aid gets through the Egyptian border to help the people of Gaza. We have also been able to access some supplies to make hot meals.

As an organisation, Islamic Relief works with a wide range of communities, both Muslims and non-Muslims. We do not discriminate on the basis of religion, gender, race or ethnicity but give aid to those who are most in need.

For those who are interested, our orphan sponsorship program is Zakat eligible. If you would like to designate your orphan sponsorship as part of your Zakat donations, kindly let us know. We can pair you with a Muslim orphan specifically.

In the tragic event of a child being killed, Islamic Relief will continue to support the family. Islamic Relief has a commitment established long before the current emergency to continue to help the family of a deceased child whether the child has siblings or not. This is an extremely traumatic time, and the families we are supporting need ongoing support.

The current situation in Gaza is unprecedented. Our team on the ground are committed to helping those in need and will do everything they can to help locate missing children, although this may take some time given the scale of the current crisis and displacement of so many people. It is hard to tell how long this may take. Before this current crisis, Islamic Relief’s team were very close to the communities we were helping in their local areas, whereas now well over a million of Gaza’s population of 2.2 million have been forced to move from their home areas to try to find refuge in a safer place.

At the moment, the priority for families in Gaza is survival with the escalation of the humanitarian crisis. Islamic Relief is calling on the international community to ensure that adequate aid gets through the Egyptian border to help the people of Gaza. When the situation improves and settles, we will commit to continuing to help children access education and healthcare. At the moment it is difficult to foresee when this will happen.

We are still taking on more orphans into the program and the IR Palestine team is working hard to get more orphans onto the system.

All funds directed at supporting Gaza will be used in Gaza, we have a dedicated fund, and donors can be assured that they will reach Gaza.

For the additional funds that are coming in and those we are unable to use at the moment, we are assessing opportunities to invest in long-term development programming, including rebuilding efforts.

Sustainable development programming is just as vital as providing emergency relief, so donors can be assured donations will be used to uplift communities in Gaza. Circumstances obviously do allow us to undertake any assessments in term of rebuilding.

It is possible to sponsor a child in the West Bank through Islamic Relief, and we welcome further support because there is a great need – so many orphans need our help, and their needs have increased in the current conflict and instability.