01 February 2017
How You Helped in 2016
With the first month of the new year at an end, we’ve been looking back at Muslim Hands in 2016 and all the amazing things you helped us achieve. Here are some of the highlights:
Subhan’Allah, with so much going on around the globe, our teams have been busy providing emergency relief and long-term support in over 40 countries. This included:
1,165,000 people had access to clean, safe water thanks to the projects you supported.
As well as giving out emergency supplies of food, water, warm clothes and tents in Greece, Macedonia, Germany and France, we provided 380,000 hot meals to refugees in Austria.
30,000 olive trees were given to Palestinian farmers and nearly 10,000 women and children affected by the crisis in Gaza have been provided with psychological support including counselling and therapy sessions.
We’ve been active in Syria and on its borders since the start of the conflict. In 2016 we provided food to over 100,000 Syrians including emergency distributions to the besieged towns of Aleppo and Madaya. We also provided medical care to over 8,400 people and educated nearly 2,000 children.
Thanks to your generosity over the Ramadan period, we were able to give a whopping 953,000 iftar meals over 43 locations across the world.
In 2016, our donors had the opportunity to light the lamps of Al-Aqsa, the third holiest site in Islam. Their donations provided the sacred mosque with a brand new state-of-the art lighting system as well as new wudu facilities for female worshippers.
Since 2008, our award-winning UK Community Development department has been working to tackle issues of poverty, exploitation and exclusion. Last year they:
• Supported over 6,000 people struggling with poverty.
• Were recognised for their ground-breaking work in prisoner rehabilitation when team member, Sofia Buncy received a Butler Trust Award for her Muslim Women in Prison project.
• Reached out to over 1,300 people dealing with drug misuse across London, Nottingham and Leicester.
• Provided over 3,100 prisoners with Ramadan and Eid gifts.
In 2016 we held over 40 events, attended by over 20,000 people across the country. Hundreds of volunteers gave up their time to help us and over 1 million pounds was raised for worthwhile causes. Highlights from last year’s calendar include:
Over 2,000 people gathered at the iconic Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for this exciting night-time walk, the first of its kind in the Muslim charity sector! Alhamdulillah, participants raised £200,000 for Syrian refugees.
This lavish dinner event was organised and delivered by our amazing volunteers and raised £53,000 towards our work with the Rohingya community in Myanmar.
As with our past volunteer trips, Volunteer in Pakistan was a life-changing experience for those who joined us from all over the UK to volunteer in our schools for orphaned and needy children. As well as spending time at our schools, the volunteers also got the chance to visit some of our healthcare and emergency projects and even got stuck-in with building a Muslim Hands well!
We always have lots going on in Ramadan, but this 10-day dinner tour was worth a special mention. The dinners took place all over the country and guests raised over £150,000 to renovate the mosque, provide daily iftars inside Al Aqsa and give support for orphans in Palestine.
These are just some of the amazing things you helped us achieve over 2016. Thank you!
This year, with your help, we hope to reach even more people in need.
By Tijen Horoz, Senior Communications Editor
