The WF-Aid annual report for 2018/19 has been released, showing that it has been another great year for the humanitarian arm of The World Federation. This year, WF-Aid has focused on both crucial emergency support and providing truly sustainable solutions for communities in need, giving people the tools they need to create and maintain a better standard of living.
Clean, safe water
The Ali-Asghar Water Appeal, which for ten years has built wells and created infrastructure to improve access to clean, safe water for communities, has focused on long-term solutions in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kenya in 2018/19 including building over 175 wells in villages. These projects will benefit thousands of people. On a larger scale, WF-Aid has been able to provide a borehole well in Kenya, providing clean water from deep underground to a district of 60,000 people, and a water turbine enabling over 30,000 people in Pakistan to access safe water.
Vital aid to displaced peoples
WF-Aid is providing continuous support to displaced Syrians, including orphans and widows. In 2018/19 it reached over 9,200 people and provided:
- Over 2,006 food packs
- 1,470 clothes, gifts, and household items
- Educational support to 1,470 students
- 455 people with medical treatment, surgeries and equipment
As the urgent humanitarian crisis in Yemen continues, so does WF-Aid’s active frontline support. They have helped to evacuate over 300 families from the conflict, and provided urgent food and medical treatment to thousands more, including many for whom it was the first aid they had received. Millions of people are at risk of starvation in Yemen as widespread food insecurity continues, and since June 2018 WF-Aid has distributed food packs to over 12,850 people.
Additionally, they have provided 170 rounds of emergency dialysis treatment to kidney patients who would otherwise be unable to receive the life-saving treatment they need.
Educations boosters
The ongoing Fill My Cup appeal, which provides healthy breakfasts to students in Kenya and Tanzania, had another great year during which it supplied 840,000 cups of porridge to 4,000 children at 16 schools, helping them to concentrate all day at school and make the most of their education.
Another continuing appeal which has been empowering students through education since 1981, the Zainabiya Child Sponsorship Scheme, continued to flourish in 2018/19. At present, WF-Aid sponsors 950 students across India, Pakistan, Kenya and Tanzania, helping them to break the cycle of poverty. These sponsorships are enabling 709 children to receive primary education, and a further 241 students to remain in higher education.
Ramadan Appeal
The annual Ramadan Appeal, which relieves food precarity and scarcity during the Holy month and allows families to focus on their prayers without anxiety, this year:
- Distributed 19,705 food packs to widows, orphans and the elderly
- Helped people in 16 countries
- Reached over 125,000 people during Shahr Ramadan
- Provided over 3,000 families in the Khoja community with food packs (working closely with the Africa Federation, Pakistan Federation, and India Federation)
- Provided 5 million meals
- Gave 1,185 cash grants
Empowering women
WF-Aid also provided microfinance support to enable individuals to support themselves and become economically self-sufficient. This year, their support has focused particularly on empowering women, especially widows, older orphaned girls, and the elderly, to gain skills and earn a living. In Pakistan, they have provided 30 sewing machines to two vocational training centres. These were used to train 47 women in Industrial Production over a four-month course, helping them to gain jobs at the local commercial garment market. In Syria, meanwhile, they taught 35 women to make clothing, enabling them to find work and support their families.
Winter warmth
The Winter Appeal, which provides families with urgently necessary warm clothes, heaters, and blankets during cold weather in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan and the United Kingdom, was a huge success once again, providing:
- 950 sets of clothing, blankets, heaters, and power batteries in Syria
- 289 warm school uniforms in Pakistan
- 1,050 blankets in Iraq
- 54 coats, heaters and gas bottles in Lebanon
- 380 sets of clothing, sleeping bags and hot water bottles in the UK
During the Eid Al-Hajj celebration, WF-Aid provides the poor and needy with goat meat through its Qurbanis in Kenya and Tanzania. In the last year, these Qurbanis fed 1,570 people.
Self-sufficient health centres
In addition to these appeals and programmes, WF-Aid continues to support the health centres and clinics with which it has been working for several years. Many of these centres are now self-sufficient, and WF-Aid now works with them to improve their facilities and help people access them. Aeinullah Eye Clinics in Pakistan was able to provide 355 low-cost or free eye consultations in 2018/19 with this support.
Wonderful work
WF-Aid’s wonderful work continues to improve the lives of people in desperate circumstances worldwide, both within our own Khoja communities and throughout Islam. It’s now easier than ever to support their work with the free iSadaqah smartphone app, which makes donating simple, fast and convenient.