Amidst the challenges presented by COVID-19, Islamic Relief has maintained the positive impact of our annual Ramadan food programme. Thanks to the generous support of our donors, early reports indicate that we once again provided food to over 900,000 people in the holy month.
Every Ramadan, Islamic Relief provides food parcels containing essential items such as oil, flour and dates to families in need.
Many of the people we reach have been affected by disasters and are supported by Islamic Relief’s humanitarian emergency programmes. The food parcels allow them to be better prepared for the month of Ramadan, easing their worries about where their next meal will come from.
“With the global COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing measures in place in most parts of the world, distributions were more challenging this Ramadan,” says Zaheer Afzal, Seasonal Programmes Manager for Islamic Relief Worldwide.
“However, Islamic Relief donors continued to give generously, and we were able to successfully adapt our programme to ensure that vulnerable people in 30 countries did not lose out. In fact, families needed our help more than ever this year as the pandemic has seen many lose their source of income and some have lost their loved ones.”
Our safety measures included offering people individual time slots to collect their food parcels and encouraging just one member of a household to collect the parcel in order to avoid overcrowding.
Other changes included working with national postal services to deliver food parcels to people’s homes and in countries where this was not possible, we issued vouchers so families could collect food directly from local suppliers.
Distributions were not possible in Chad this year, due to the challenging situation facing humanitarian organisations operating in the country. A full report with confirmed distribution figures for our global Ramadan operation is expected next month.
We offer our sincere thanks to donors for their generosity, despite this being a difficult time for most. Your kind support offered hope and relief to many families facing particularly difficult circumstances this year.
