Race for Relief - Aisha A.
Emergency Appeal
Zakat Eligible
This fundraiser is being organized by
Aisha Akbar
Witnessing the unimaginable hardship faced by the people of Palestine deeply moves my heart. With over 49,000 injuries and 18,000 lives lost, including more than 7,000 innocent children, the stark reality is heart-wrenching, and Gaza is in desperate need of our support.
In the midst of this profound suffering, we not only have the opportunity but also the responsibility to take action. This is why I'm taking part in Islamic Relief Calgary's Race for Relief, and I am reaching out to you with a heart full of hope and determination. Every step I take is driven by the belief that together, we can make a meaningful impact.
Ways You Can Make a Difference:
Contribute: Your donation, regardless of its size, plays a crucial role in providing essential aid. Your generosity will touch lives and bring a glimmer of hope during these challenging times.
Be an Advocate: If contributing financially is challenging, you can still be a powerful force for change. Join us in advocating for Gaza by sending an email to your local MP, urging immediate action. Your voice matters, and together, we can amplify it to make a difference.
In times of challenge, unity emerges as our most powerful asset. Let's stand side by side—for Palestine, for the sake of humanity. Your backing carries a significance that goes beyond what words can convey.
can provide life-saving essentials
can provide a family with life-saving food
can provide emergency medical supplies
Urgent Action Needed to Secure a Permanent Ceasefire in Gaza
Gaza has now endured over two months of intense Israeli bombardment, subjected to destruction, civilian terror and recurrent breaches of international humanitarian law. Palestinian authorities report over 18,000 + deaths, including 7,000 children, and more than 49,000 injuries—horrific figures that are rising daily.
UN experts are warning against ethnic cleansing and even imminent genocide in Gaza.
Yet, Canada refuses to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. Silence is complicity.
Email your local representative and let them know that Canada must exhaust every means in its power to call for an immediate permanent ceasefire and an end to the bombings in Gaza.
Send Urgent Relief to Gaza
The people of Gaza are fleeing for their lives as they experience 60+ days of indiscriminate attacks, ongoing blockade, starvation diet, and mass killing of civilians in the most densely-populated place on earth
These attacks have injured over 49,000 people and killed 18,000 Palestinians, further displacing 1.8 million people.
After suffering decades of violence and human rights violations, Palestinian people continue to feel unsafe in their own country. Lack of fuel, clean water and limited food supplies has forced the healthcare system into a state of total collapse, and caused significant levels of dehydration and starvation among children as essential supplies slowly run out across the Gaza Strip.
Islamic Relief is committed to responding and working with local partners to provide emergency medical assistance to nearby hospitals and urgent food support to displaced families and clean water to entire communities.
As a member of the Humanitarian Coalition, all donations made through Islamic Relief Canada to the Palestine Emergency Appeal from October 7 - November 12 will be matched up to $10 million. Our joint fundraising appeal brought together 12 of Canada's leading international aid agencies in unity for the same cause, amplifying our impact on the ground.
How is Islamic Relief delivering aid into Gaza?
Islamic Relief has been on the ground, operating in Palestine since 1997. We have offices with staff and volunteers who have been distributing all emergency food and medical supplies they had previously stockpiled or could additionally procure, every day since the escalations began.
We are working alongside the Ministry of Health, UN humanitarian organizations, and local partners: Beit Lahia Development Association, Gaza Culture and Development Group, Unlimited Friends Association for Social Development, and Bayader for Environment and Development Association.
From October 7 to December 12, 2023, our team has so far distributed:
⛑️ 2.2 million medical supply items
📦 12,270 food packs
💵 4,245 food vouchers
🥬 Fresh produce to 59,523 households
🍴 896,125 ready-to-eat meals + ready-to-eat items to 6,193 families
🛏️ 11,033 blankets and mattresses
💧16,404 people received clean water
🧼 35,411 hygiene kits + items to 18 shelters
🎈34,101 children received psychosocial support
However, all humanitarian agencies in Gaza are running low on essential supplies. We need your support to be able to continue sustaining distributions on a mass scale the moment new aid is allowed in.
Provide Therapy for Kids in Gaza
In the face of the most catastrophic destruction and humanitarian crisis to date in Gaza, children are paying the heaviest price.
Nearly half of Gaza’s population are children, with over 450,000 currently left without a home. 18,000 Palestinian children have been orphaned and no longer have the emotional or financial support to survive, let alone thrive.
For the children in Gaza experiencing emotional distress, just $20 can provide group therapy for one child so they can gain access to the tools, fun activities, and knowledge to heal from their trauma.
The situation in Palestine
The people of Palestine are no stranger to devastation. Ongoing violence and restrictions have severely impacted access to food, water, and healthcare in Palestine, leaving over 1.3 million people in need of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
For people across Palestine, life is incredibly challenging:
- 80% of the population are dependent on humanitarian assistance to survive (European Union, 2023)
- 65% of Palestinians in Gaza live below the poverty line (UN, 2022)
- 9 out of 10 children in Gaza suffer from some form of conflict-related trauma (Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, 2021)
- 7 out of 10 households are food insecure (OCHA 2021)
How your donations are making a difference to the people of Palestine
Islamic Relief has been working in Palestine since 1997. Our work in Gaza is focused on both emergency relief and development support, ensuring sustainable long-term programs that are transformative for the communities involved.
Some of our key projects over the past few years have included:
Distributing emergency food packs and facilitating access to clean drinking water
Creating sustainable livelihood opportunities for 755 farmer families by planting olive trees and providing essential tools for cultivation and irrigation
Empowering orphans and vulnerable children through education and STEM
Enrolling children in recreational therapy and psychosocial services
Following the May 2021 escalations in Gaza, Islamic Relief launched new projects for recovery and rehabilitation, ensuring your donations reached those in most need. These projects included:
Health: Rehabilitated and equipped 2 primary health care clinics with equipment, resources, tools and training.
Education: Repaired and rehabilitated 3 schools, and 3 special education centers that were damaged.
Livelihoods: Supported microbusinesses with cash assistance.
Food: Provided cash assistance to families so they can buy household staples.
Water Sanitation and Hygiene: Rehabilitated wastewater connections in housing units and enhanced access to clean water.
Your support for Gaza is helping our teams to deliver vital medical, food, water, and psychosocial support to Palestinians in need.
How does Islamic Relief ensure transparency and accountability in its operations?
Islamic Relief has strict policies and processes in place to ensure that aid is used for its intended humanitarian purpose. We conduct in-depth investigations to ensure optimal quality of work, appropriate policies and processes to manage funds and safeguard people in communities, and ensure that partners share our core humanitarian values.
This oversight, monitoring and quality control is conducted by an Islamic Relief team that is on the ground in Gaza. Our work in Gaza – as elsewhere around the world – has also been regularly audited by leading global auditors to ensure that funds are going to the most vulnerable people in need.
Islamic Relief works with communities to strengthen their resilience to calamities, and we provide vital emergency aid when disasters occur.
We help the impoverished access basic services, including education, water and sanitation, as well as healthcare. We provide lasting routes out of poverty through our sustainable development schemes. Our integrated approach to progress is transforming communities worldwide.
We tackle the root causes of poverty and make sure that the world’s most vulnerable people have real influence in both our programs and advocacy.
Our key values, of compassion, justice, custodianship, sincerity and excellence – a critical part of our Islamic faith - inspire us each and every day to create positive change and remember the sanctity of life.
In line with Islamic teachings on the value of every human life, we provide assistance to whoever needs it most, regardless of race, religion or gender. We work to transform and save lives of people in crisis both Canada and across the world.
Let us share the khair from the blessings Allah has bestowed upon us.