Tag: Emergency

What do you do in Australia when faced with an emergency? For refugees and new immigrants in Australia, it can be challenging to find disaster recovery programs that cater to diverse cultural and linguistic needs. 

At Islamic Relief, we firmly believe in giving everyone the right to feel empowered and protected, especially during times of crisis. From what numbers to call and who to turn to, all communities should have the ability to rebuild and recover after any natural disaster, whether it be floods, droughts or bushfires.

That’s why, with the support of the NSW Government’s Community Resilience Innovation Program (CRIP), Islamic Relief is here to provide programs that provide communities with the tools they need to navigate through local emergencies end-to-end, from prevention to recovery. And we’re delighted to share with you a video of this journey so far.

Humanity, as living beings, needs water to survive. We need water to drink to survive. We need water for our crops and livestock to eat and earn a living. Yet, in so many parts of the world, communities struggle to find clean water. Especially in countries like Bangladesh, where water comes from a faraway source and families spend days seeking it from sources that may not be clean in the first place.

Historically, Bangladesh has been a water-rich nation. Home to a network of hundreds of rivers, the country boasts the world’s largest river delta, the Ganges Delta. But climate change and increasingly polluted waterways have left Bangladesh in a worsening water crisis.

Climate change takes its toll on Bangladesh

As the climate crisis worsens, Bangladesh faces a disastrous future of unpredictable rainfall and major flooding. In June this year, a massive flood killed at least 22 people in Bangladesh and stranded another 4 million. Yet, reports have shown rainfall rates in Bangladesh have only fallen each year in the past two decades, a worrying decline that has been noted since the early 1950s. Crops and poorly built housing and infrastructure cannot thrive in these uncertain weather conditions.

The geographical makeup of Bangladesh has also left its population highly vulnerable to sea-level rise. As global warming continues to contribute to rising sea levels, many more Bangladeshis will be without homes and clean water as groundwater and surface water father inland become saltier as a result.

Millions of people in Bangladesh are without a reliable water supply

In addition to rising sea levels making natural water resources in Bangladesh undrinkable, these reserves are also severely polluted. Bangladesh’s rocks contain high levels of the poisonous substance arsenic, which leaches naturally into groundwater and contaminates irrigated crops and soils. Some 29 million people in Bangladesh have been found to be exposed to arsenic, mostly from contaminated shallow wells that constitute the backbone of the country’s rural water supply.

Sanitation is also an issue. Millions of litres of untreated sewage and industrial wastewater is is often released into surface waters and rivers across Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital city, alone each day. A 2019 survey coordinated by Bangladesh’s government and the United Nations children’s charity UNICEF also concluded that 82% of the population is exposed to water contaminated with the bacteria, E.coli. Bangladesh urgently needs a solution to ensure its populations are able to access the clean water they deserve.

Islamic Relief Australia is launching a WASH Program to help the people of Bangladesh

Islamic Relief Australia is launching a WASH Program (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) to help grant the people of Bangladesh their right to clean water and good health. WASH is an important aspect of any holistic development initiative and is recognised as part of Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6). Having access to clean water and proper sanitation facilities are important building blocks for further development initiatives such as education, health, nutrition, and livelihoods.

Currently, Islamic Relief Australia is working closely with our branch in Bangladesh, to solve the nation’s chronic water and sanitation problems. This includes building stronger water wells that reach and grant better access to sanitation and hygiene benefits for more communities across Bangladesh.

Islamic Relief is building sustainable water wells in Bangladesh

Islamic Relief is committed to building better quality, more sustainable, safer and more durable wells across Bangladesh, even in hard-to-reach areas.

The quality of our wells standout above other charities for being rigorously checked, flood-proof and extremely long-lasting. In building wells, we also ensure that communities have a complete WASH solution that includes hygiene training, toilet facilities and clean water. Our water well price includes the construction of a toilet for the community, as well as hygiene kits and training on maintaining good hygiene.

Globally there are 2.3 billion people without sanitation facilities and 844 million people without access to safe and clean drinking water. We cannot solve the water crisis by simply drilling wells and installing low-quality water pumps. Vulnerable communities in countries like Bangladesh deserve long-term water solutions that help them achieve a brighter future.

In the words of the Prophet (PBUH), “The best charity is giving water to drink.” (Ahmad)

Within Balkan countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina is a huge need for winter essentials. Already struggling with the aftermath of civil wars, lack of employment opportunities, ongoing corruption and a mass exodus of youth departing for western Europe, the incoming cold season brings forth another layer of dread for Bosnians.

As temperatures drop as low as -30 degrees during the cold winter months, Bosnians are struggling to stay warm amidst a power supply crisis and an uncertain future.

Hiking power source prices cause further distress for struggling Bosnians

Over the past decade, wood pellets, firewood and gas have been popular power sources for heating in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But with the prices of these fuels skyrocketing this year, many Bosnians are switching to the cheaper alternative of electricity, at the risk of overwhelming the country’s power network.

Electricity prices for households in Bosnia are subsidised by the state and are a tenth of international market prices. By contrast, the price of gas has increased nearly 100% since last winter and wood pellets have tripled in price. The rising costs as growing so expensive that entire apartment blocks in large Bosnian cities like Banja Luka have already forgone their usual power source accounts due to high bills.

But Bosnia’s power network is not designed for high electricity consumption by households. Bosnia exports about 25% of its electricity. It is also the Balkans’ sole exporter of electricity, with two-thirds going to neighbours Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia.

A massive switch to electrical appliances for heating could bring Bosnian’s power system down and leave neighbouring countries without a steady supply of electricity, as well as hurt their own economy. But with a struggling population and alternative power prices only looking to increase, Bosnia and Herzegovina have few other choices.

Islamic Relief is giving struggling families a fighting chance to deal with the cold weather

As temperatures plummet and the cost of living continues to rise, the poorest families face a particularly desperate winter. Islamic Relief is a lifeline for thousands of families across 17 countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Mevlida lives with her 2 children.

“In the war I lost 2 brothers and my father,” says Mevlida, recalling the horrors of the Bosnian War in the 1990s. “I found and buried my brothers, but I never found my father.”

Since her husband died of a heart attack, Mevlida and her children have been living with extended family, but the mother-of-two is unemployed and it is hard to make ends meet.

“My oldest son does some seasonal work and mows grass to earn some money. He is a metal welder, but no one is hiring for that right now. He has tried to get a job as a merchant or waiter, but to no avail. I look after our cow; we have milk and a little cheese.”

“The clothes, shoes and firewood provided by Islamic Relief helped us survive winter”

Life is difficult throughout the year, but in winter the family’s situation becomes even more dire. That’s why, this winter, Islamic Relief aims to reach thousands more families like Mevlida with vital survival items like warm clothes, fuel, and blankets.

“Winter is always hard for us; the weather is very cold and harsh. There is not much work that can be done to earn money. Everyone is clearing the snow from their doors and their homes. Our expenses are highest during this season, and we cannot earn much.”

The winter survival assistance the family received last year made a difference, Mevlida says.

“Islamic Relief has helped us a lot with packages of clothes, winter shoes, and firewood. This has helped us a lot, thank you so much. I want to thank you for your help, and for helping everyone’s children.”

The future of Albania is hanging by a thread. Astronomical cost of living, widespread corruption, a massive earthquake and the aftermath of a global pandemic have driven people out of the country in droves. And, with winter coming, mass emigration is only looking to increase as citizens struggle to find work and enough food to feed their families.

Since the fall of communism in 1991, nearly 40% of Albania’s population has left the country, heading for countries like Greece, Italy, Germany, the Nordic countries, the UK and the US. Many Albanian cities, towns and villages that used to be bustling with stable economies are now becoming ghost towns. Kukësi in the north of Albania has seen more than 53% of its citizens leave. The cities of Shkodra, Fieri, Durrësi and Vlorë have each lost more than 15% of their population in the past ten years. Villages, in particular, have seen massive numbers leave, from Narta in the south to Zogaj in the north.

The Albanian government provides little support

Throughout the years, the government has offered very little support for people who were struggling. More and more of Albania’s population are below the poverty line, as costs and inflation, particularly with respect to food, electricity, oil and gas, continue to rise. Even as hundreds of people were injured, killed and left homeless from a mass earthquake in 2019, corruption and nepotism within the country have left limited domestic aid for the Albanian population during times of crisis.

Likewise, property rights in Albania are also extremely precarious and are a major cause of economic and social strife in the country. Through legal loopholes or political connections, the state can claim any land back or destroy any investment in the land without much notice. People are having to pay bribes to keep their property. Organised crime, corruption and loan sharking have flourished. And European companies are not investing in Albania because of these issues surrounding land.

With the lack of local and international government investment to invest in alternative industries, many people are without jobs and the younger generation leaving as they see no future here. Albanians have lost hope that things will get better any time soon. Many educated and ambitious Albanians are looking for a better life elsewhere, while those too poor to move are left to bear the brunt of Albania’s spiralling economy and a sombre winter.

Winter has pushed the world’s most vulnerable people to the brink of survival

This winter, many of the world’s most vulnerable people will be pushed to the edge of survival. In our mission to alleviate suffering from the poor and needy, Islamic Relief Australia is providing over 72,000 winter kits, packed with essential survival items, and supporting over 455,000 people this winter season. With our Winter Appeal, we aim to provide a lifeline for thousands of families in 17 countries, including Albania, where mother-of-3 Valbona lives with her parents.

“We face challenges with warmth, food, and shelter,” says 33-year-old Valbona, who has been struggling to provide for her children. “Every morning I wake up to prepare food, and sometimes I do not eat myself because there is not enough food for all of us. There is a social centre where the children can sometimes get lunch.

“We had to move into my parent’s home as I can’t afford to live in a rented house. Now, we share 2 small rooms between 6 family members. As my children grow, they need stationery, clothes, and food which I can’t provide as I don’t have a job.

“My children and I do not receive any orphan-related support from the state, nor do we get any social assistance for being unemployed. The only consistent income we get is my mother’s 90 Euro disability assistance. My mother also sells some crafts, handmade products like socks, on the street, despite her health not being good.”

“I was scared about this winter, but now our home can be warm”

Last winter, Valbona was desperately worried for her family – until Islamic Relief stepped in.

“The only help my family has received is from Islamic Relief. Before we got the wood for heating, I was scared about this winter, but now our home can be warm. Feeling warmth during the long, dark winter is a joy.

“My family and I are very happy. We have been in need, and you have supported us. I don’t have enough words to express what the food and wood distribution means to us. I don’t have to worry for a month, and I can save money for medicines for my children.

“We would like to express our deep gratitude to all the donors, and pray for your health, happiness, and success in everything. May your kindness and generosity return to you a hundredfold, may your strength and energy grow, and may your hopes become a reality.”

In Nepal, winter marks a season of further suffering within a country with low economic prospects, hard-to-reach areas, natural disasters and severe underemployment.

Of the people living in Nepal, 25 per cent are living below the poverty line. High food prices, earthquakes, unemployment and limited access to resources have left around 5 million people in Nepal undernourished and devastated. People are out of homes, children are dying and women are becoming more vulnerable to gender-based crimes.

During winter, the effects of Nepal’s poor economy are especially pronounced. Nepal’s poor struggle with limited resources to survive the cold and hardly any access to health care. Their children often miss school because they don’t have proper warm clothes, leaving them vulnerable to serious cold weather-related illnesses. As a result, each year, these poor families in Nepal are unable to meet their basic needs nor protect their children and elderly from the elements.

Emergency aid is essential to their survival

Thanks to the generosity and kindness of our supporters, Islamic Relief is delivering vital items to 455,000 vulnerable people to help them survive the harsh winter weather. Among them are people like Suggani Nesha, 73, who faces a bleak winter in Nepal.

“My husband and I get some money from the social security fund from the government which helps us survive,” says Suggani. “We also work as labourers to earn money when we can.

“We own a small piece of land near a riverbank, but we are unable to grow crops as flooding destroys our crops during the rainy season. We don’t have a proper home, we live in a hut which cannot protect us from the cold, wind, or rain.”

The older couple’s lives become even more difficult when temperatures plummet in winter.

“During the winter our life gets very hard due to the extreme cold. We cannot wake up early and work outside. We spend time in our hut, we light a fire in the nearby field to help warm our bodies. As we have grown old the winters have become hard for us. Winter is an enemy for people in their old age like us: we get sick, and our lives become more painful than normal.”

“Winter has become our enemy, but Islamic Relief is our friend”

The winter survival items the couple received from Islamic Relief last year made a big difference, Suggani says.

“The support we got from Islamic Relief helps poor people like us. We would not be able to afford such good quality winter kit, we can now have warm water and sleep in a warm bed. I would like to say thanks to all the people supporting us.”

This winter, more people than ever before are in desperate need. Islamic Relief is working tirelessly to ease their suffering by distributing vital winter survival items to vulnerable families in 17 countries.

Help people like Suggani survive this cold winter season

The changing of the seasons can be challenging for all of us, especially the most vulnerable among us. With energy and food prices rocketing, more and more people have been pushed into poverty.

The United Nations has estimated that, since the pandemic, an additional 75 million people may have been pushed into living in extreme poverty by the end of the year. The overall number of people living in extreme poverty could reach 800 million this year. For these people, winter’s plummeting temperatures and harsh weather mean an ever-greater struggle for survival.

However, there is hope. Last year, through your generous support, Islamic Relief provided winter kits to more than 435,000 people in 17 countries. Kits contain vital survival items such as warm clothes, blankets, and heaters. Support and donate to the winter appeal to help vulnerable families stay warm as they make their way through harsh winter months.

As the first winter showers hit the Gaza Strip, Palestinian families are struggling to keep themselves warm and gain access to essential aid and resources.

In Gaza, the advent of winter marks a season of infrastructure problems, rainwater flooding and massive power cuts. Per day, people receive just 40 per cent of required power as a result of the city power plant’s inability to operate at full capacity due to a lack of fuel, placing the continuation of basic essential services at risk.

This, combined with the lack of funding and successive sieges that have further worn-out the infrastructure of houses and buildings within the Gaza Strip, has left Palestinians suffering through another winter season.

Palestine needs external aid to survive the winter weather

Islamic Relief teams are on the ground in the Gaza Strip, distributing survival items to help more than 455,000 vulnerable people get through the harsh winter season. The intervention is assisting people like Yasser, who lives in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

“I have a heart condition, so I am not able to work and therefore we rely on social affairs and other aid to survive,” says Yasser, who lives with his wife and 5 children in a dangerously dilapidated house in Gaza.

“It has been hard living in my house. It didn’t have windows or doors and we were even afraid to move around the house as the ceiling could fall. There were too many cracks in it, this made us suffer from the extreme heat in the summer and the cold in the winter.”

Wintry weather meant more misery for the family

“My family always suffers a lot in the winter. Cold air comes in everywhere, and when it rained the whole house would flood. I would spend the night moving around, making sure my children would stay warm. During the daytime, I would move from one hospital to another to get treatment for my children who got ill during the winter due to their poor immune systems.”

It was a worrying, exhausting way to live, Yasser adds, “This has made me so tired and worried and makes me feel sad for my children.”

But thanks to Islamic Relief, the father-of-5 was able to improve his family’s living conditions.

“I was so worried for my children: thank God for Islamic Relief’s winter assistance.”

Yasser says: “Thank God for Islamic Relief’s winterisation project: it has allowed me to buy the tools needed for the house. Before I only had 3 mattresses between a family of 8, and now we have enough mattresses and blankets for all of us.

“Thank God, they have installed windows and doors, and worked on tiling the floor and repairing the cracks in the wall. I am optimistic that this winter my children will not drown from the rainwater flooding our home as they sleep.

“Through the Islamic Relief project, we were able to make so many repairs which will make our lives better this winter.”

You could change the lives of more families like Yasser’s

Imagine the fear and feeling of helplessness that would grip you as bombs fall on your neighbourhood, while you struggled to find enough food and medicine for your family in harsh cold weather.

Islamic Relief Australia is helping vulnerable families in 17 countries to survive the harsh winter elements. In worst-hit regions like the Gaza Strip in Palestine, Islamic Relief is on the ground, delivering food packs, blankets, mattresses, winter clothes and other heating items to those who need them most.

Your donation would give fathers like Yasser the basic essentials and proper housing infrastructure he needs to help his family stay warm this winter. Ensure that they get the relief they need by showing your support.

More than 37 million people are facing worsening acute hunger as populations in the Horn of Africa are only marginally able to meet minimum food needs.

According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification scale, tens of millions within the region, including approximately seven million children under the age of five, are in crisis, facing severe magnitudes of food insecurity and acute malnutrition, with numbers growing at an alarming rate.

A region dangerously close to famine

Rising conflict, climate extremes, economic instability aggravated by the lingering impacts of COVID-19 and the ripple effects of the war in Ukraine are among the key drivers for food insecurity in the Horn of Africa. But the worst and longest drought in decades has brought the region’s hunger crisis even closer to the brink of famine.

With the region having barely seen a drop of rain since 2020 and a predicted fifth failed rainy season in a row on the horizon, water scarcity from the worsening drought has led to poor harvests and livestock deaths. These failing harvests and dying livestock, as the main source of people’s livelihood, have left food prices spiralling out of control and vulnerable populations, especially women and children, at increased risk of resource-based and intercommunal conflict.

Populations are struggling to access basic needs

The severe food insecurity has caused hundreds of thousands of people, especially from the worst drought-hit communities in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, to migrate in search of sustenance, walking long distances in scorching summer heat. Starving and vulnerable families are trying to reach camps that are already struggling to distribute adequate food and other resources, all while losing their young children and elderly to hunger and thirst on these journeys.

This large-scale displacement has also been accompanied by a deterioration in hygiene and sanitation. Even in camps, families struggle with a shortage of facilities to keep clean. Medical supplies are also scarce, leaving healthcare centres overwhelmed by severely malnourished children with medical complications and rising outbreaks of infectious diseases such as cholera, measles, and malaria.

But as malnutrition and displacement in the Horn of Africa only increase, populations will become weaker and more vulnerable to disease, especially children, for whom the combination of malnutrition and disease can prove fatal. People are in desperate need of food security, to prevent the current crisis from forcing them to choose between their basic needs.

Humanitarian action is critical to preventing starvation and death

The United Nations is calling for urgent and targeted humanitarian action from our governments and the international community to prevent the food crisis in the Horn of Africa from turning into a health crisis. 

While short-term relief is needed to save lives, protecting people’s livelihoods and restoring their dignity are also required to prevent famine in the region, especially as worse crises are predicted to hit the Horn of Africa in the future. Without an adequate humanitarian response, morbidity and mortality will continue to increase within the region, as emergency conditions force people to modify their health-seeking behaviour and prioritise access to life-saving resources such as food and water.

Islamic Relief is responding to the hunger crisis

So far, we have helped more than 167,000 people across the Horn of Africa, but much more is needed. We are providing people with vital food, clean water, cash and medical supplies. We are making sure camps have adequate shelter, food and water storage and trained medical staff to allow populations to not make the impossible choice between sustenance and healthcare.

Thanks to the generosity and kindness of our supporters, Islamic Relief Australia have been able to help some of the most vulnerable people at this critical time, but the response needs to be scaled up. We need to deliver more aid and sustainable solutions to ensure the population is prepared for future climate-induced disasters and crises. The world must not wait for famine to be declared before helping people who are starving right now.

Recent food security analyses from Somalia must be the final wake-up call to the international community to act now and stop Somalia from falling into famine.

Hundreds of thousands of lives are at risk unless more aid urgently reaches people on the ground in Somalia. The analyses observe that people are already starving and, with famine likely just weeks away in some parts of the country, waiting until a formal famine declaration would be a shameful delay.

Somalia is already too close to the brink of famine

More than 260,000 people died in the 2011 famine in the region, and about half of them had already died by the time the crisis had been officially declared a famine. In 2022, as four consecutive failed rainy seasons have brought Somalia its worst drought in 40 years, crops and cattle have perished, ruining millions of livelihoods as families are left malnourished and dying from hunger.

Due to the impending famine, more than 1 million Somalis – 66% of whom are children – are forced to flee from their homes in a desperate search for food and water, with thousands more being uprooted every single day.

These displaced families walk long distances in scorching summer heat in hopes of finding aid and are forced to witness their young children, elderly and other vulnerable family members die along the way.

Yet the international response has been, and still is, far too slow.

Now is the time for the international community to take action

Waseem Ahmad, CEO of Islamic Relief Worldwide, says: “There is a clear choice – act now to get more aid on the ground and save lives, or many people will die. Today’s stark figures must galvanise donors into action. Without an urgent scale up of aid, hundreds of thousands of lives are at risk.

“The world must not wait for famine to be declared, we must do everything we can to prevent it. Aid workers and families in Somalia already know that people are starving, with children and the elderly facing particularly acute pain and suffering. In just one camp in Baidoa people say that more than 300 children have died in the last three months. Islamic Relief aid workers have met families walking for days in scorching heat to reach the camps in the hope of receiving life-saving aid – yet when they arrive there is simply not enough food to go round and diseases are rife. Children and elderly people have died from hunger and thirst on the journey, while women and girls are at risk of attack while walking miles alone.

“Right now we are seeing unprecedented climate-related disasters all over the world. From the worst floods in living memory in Pakistan to the worst drought in decades in Somalia, it is often the people who contribute least to climate change who suffer the gravest consequences. We need real global commitment to tackle the climate crisis and we need it urgently.” 

We need your help to save millions of lives from famine

In Somalia, local, national and international humanitarian organisations can and are reaching communities most in need. As it is when livelihoods and livestock are protected people that vulnerable populations are much less likely to fall into famine’s deadly shadow.

Islamic Relief Australia is on the ground in Somalia – and in other drought-affected parts of the Horn of Africa – and providing lifesaving food, water, cash and healthcare. So far Islamic Relief has helped more than 167,000 people in the region but much more funds are needed to scale up the response further.

Countries like Somalia and other regions in the Horn of Africa need sustainable solutions now to deal with the long-term consequences of drought and climate change on people’s livelihoods and way of life. The world must not wait for famine to be declared before providing humanitarian aid to those who are starving and dying from hunger.

As the UN launches a new $816 million funding appeal to help Pakistan recover from the devastating floods, Islamic Relief Australia is urging international donors to give generously and ensure that funds and humanitarian assistance reach affected communities quickly.

A series of new Islamic Relief assessments carried out in the hardest-hit areas of Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) sees alarming results for the future of Pakistan if the needs of flood victims are not met amidst the worsening emergency. 

Three-quarters of people in Pakistan still do not have access to safe drinking water.

The assessments observed that 73% of people still lack access to clean water, with 80% of water sources in some areas having been contaminated. Tens of thousands of people are now affected by water-borne diseases including diarrhoea, malaria, typhoid, acute respiratory infections and skin and eye infections. Areas that are still underwater are also seeing a rise in dengue fever.

Worse still is how the floods have damaged 2,000 health facilities, leaving a rising number of vulnerable people without support or medical aid. Shortages of clean water and soap mean have also decreased the number of usable sanitation facilities, as only 27% of people in Pakistan are able to wash themselves thoroughly. Women and girls are especially at risk due to this lack of availability, as a limited amount of privacy or safe places leaves them at increasing risk of harassment and abuse.

Poverty increases as floods continue to destroy homes and livelihoods.

In some areas, almost half of the people surveyed have lost their jobs since the floods. 74% of farmers’ vegetable crops have been damaged and small businesses are struggling to recover because of the damage to roads and bridges which is restricting access to markets.

Over 34,000 homes in flood-affected districts have also perished. In Balochistan alone, over 150,000 people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, and across all regions, thousands of vulnerable people are facing internal displacement.

The needs on the ground remain enormous as Pakistan sees no end to the flash floods.

Massive reconstruction is needed across the country after billions of dollars worth of damage to houses, farms, schools, roads, hospitals, water networks, sanitation systems and other vital infrastructure. Millions of people are in desperate need of sustained support to rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

Asif Sherazi, Islamic Relief’s Country Director in Pakistan, says: “International attention is fading away but families are still living in the open and winter is fast approaching, when the bitter cold will bring new suffering for many families. The international response so far has helped save lives but the needs on the ground are far bigger than anything we have seen before. International donors need to show greater urgency and make sure that the funds reach organisations who are on the frontlines of the response, including local Pakistani organisations.”

Islamic Relief is also calling on the world to go beyond emergency aid and commit to addressing the devastating effects of climate change on Pakistan. A global finance facility that grants debt relief to Pakistan and allows the country to focus its resources on vital repairs and rebuilding, as well as improve its climate change resistance.  

Help support the relief and recovery efforts underway in Pakistan.

Islamic Relief is focused on helping communities recover from the disaster as quickly as possible to ensure that vulnerable people do not continue to suffer the terrifying impact of the flash floods. Our plans include providing cash grants to families in the most flood-affected areas, which they can use as they wish to cover their most essential needs. Our teams are also working with the local government to support relief efforts.

Islamic Relief has now reached more than 400,000 people across Pakistan with essential aid, including providing clean water, constructing new lavatories, hygiene kits and handwashing stations, as well as supporting people with shelter, food, cash and education. Together, we have raised more than $25 million for its response, and we thank supporters of our flood relief efforts from around the world for your incredible generosity and kindness.

Without access to this urgent aid, flood victims in Pakistan remain at even more risk due to the worsening situation. That’s why, with your help, we can save thousands of lives by responding to their ongoing and immediate needs.

The Horn of Africa is suffering from the worst drought in decades. An unprecedented four successive failed rainy seasons have wiped out people’s crops and livestock, with the most recent rainy season being the region’s driest in 70 years. On top of the drought, Russia’s war on Ukraine has impacted wheat and fertilizer supplies to the Horn of Africa, tripling prices in markets.

The years of failed harvests, perished livestock, water shortages and rising food prices have devastated livelihoods, as almost 20 million people in parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia are malnourished, dying from hunger and threatened with famine.

We are witnessing the devastating impact of climate change in real time.

The Horn of Africa has barely seen a drop of rain since 2020. As droughts have now become more frequent and intense, families in these regions are fleeing, risking their lives by trekking in scorching summer heat to reach camps where they can get essential aid. Young children, elderly and vulnerable people arrive in camps on the verge of death, with many more dying from hunger and thirst on the journey there.

Yusuf Roble, Islamic Relief’s Head of Region for East Africa, says: “People here are extremely resilient and can find ways to cope with the most incredible hardships. One or two poor rains makes life very difficult but people find ways to recover. But four failed rains is virtually unprecedented in our lifetimes. Their crops and livestock have died and there is no respite from the drought and no chance to recover. People here are at the forefront of suffering from the devastating impact of climate change.”

Somalia alone saw more than 1 million people flee their homes this year.

In the worst-affected parts of Somalia, almost 4,000 people are now being uprooted every single day in desperate search of food and water. Among these devastating numbers, 66% of those fleeing this year have been young children. But many of these young children often die before reaching the camps, which are rapidly growing overcrowded.

Aliow Mohamed, Islamic Relief’s Country Director in Somalia, who recently visited camps in Baidoa, southern Somalia, says: “What we see here is beyond our imagination, it’s a situation of nightmares. We see children dying in front of us from hunger and illness, and others surviving on just a handful of tiny wild fruits which have barely any nutritional value. We meet grieving parents who have lost their children on the way, and women who have given birth without any healthcare or clean water.

“Hundreds more people are arriving here every day. Many of them haven’t eaten at all for several days and are on the verge of death when they arrive. When they do get here, the situation inside the camps is horrendous – there’s very little food, drinking water or latrines, and diseases spread very fast. Children are dying from acute diarrhoea or getting skin diseases like scabies because of the lack of clean water. People urgently need more aid.”

Urgent action is needed from the international community.

Islamic Relief Australia is on the ground in Somalia and in other drought-affected parts of the Horn of Africa providing lifesaving food, water and healthcare. So far Islamic Relief has helped more than 167,000 people in the region but is struggling to raise enough funds to scale up the response further as the crisis has received little attention.

Currently, the Horn of Africa region is dangerously underfunded, as worst-hit countries like Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia have only received a fraction of the aid and support they need. But it is through local, national and international humanitarian organisations reaching their vulnerable communities that these populations have the power to get back on their feet and rebuild their livelihoods.