World Water Day

Today is World Water Day and here's how you can get involved!

MGR runs the Water4Life Project in five countries across two continents. With your help we improve the health and life quality of families by providing them with a life source, and one of our most basic of needs. The solutions are simple, and they cost us next to nothing compared to everything these people stand to lose.

We install hand pumps

We build wells

We operate water tankers

We distribute bottled water

Start your Fundraising campaign today... 

Give a shallow bore hand pump from £170

Give a deep bore hand pump from £470

Give a water well in Ghana from £3,500

Give a water well in Gambia from £4,000

Give a water well in India & Pakistan from £630

Give water in Gaza with monthly water tanker distribution from £980 annually

Get your friends involved! 

If you and 9 friends gave £30 per month we could build a water well in Ghana or Gambia! Such a well can provide safe water for up to 2,000 people, depending on the region.

In Gaza, MGR distributes clean water via tankers to 100 families with safe water on a monthly basis. Water distribution costs a mere £980 for the entire year. That’s you and 5 friends giving less that £10 a month to change lives!

In India and Pakistan, MGR installs hand pumps where between 10 to 35 families can benefit form a single hand pump, depending on the region. If you and 5 of your friends gave £8 a month for a year, we could build a deep bore hand pump for a destitute community in India or Pakistan.

Or maybe you want to start a fundraising activity such as a run, a coffee morning or car wash... read some idea's here and we always welcome more! 

Start your own FUNdraising campaign? You'll help thousands and have a great time too!

Feel passionate about an issue, but not sure how to help? Why not start your own fundraising campaign? It’s easier than it sounds!

Creating positive impact with the simplest solutions. It doesn’t cost us much to provide a vulnerable person or poor community with opportunities for a better future. In fact, it costs us next to nothing compared to everything these people stand to lose.

Step 1: Pick A Project

MGR has many projects you can fundraise for. Here are a few, and some idea of how much they cost.

• Plant ten Trees = £100
• Give a family a Goat = £120
• Sponsor an Orphan for a year = £324
• Give a deep bore Hand Pump = £470
• Give a Water Well in Ghana = £3,500
• Establish a Water Filtration Plant in Gaza = £5,000
• Build a Mosque in Indonesia = £9,000
• Enable us to provide Free Dialysis in Pakistan = £15,000

Step 2: Fundraise

This feels like the hard part, but actually it’s easier than you think. There are many ways to fundraise, and we’ve got a couple of Fundraising Ideas that could give you a head start. 

Step 3: You've done it!

You've helped us change the lives of thousands of people.

It's Your Call; What will you do?

At Muslim Global Relief (MGR), we know the value of recurring charity, projects that support sustainable development and have ongoing benefits to communities. They enable people to gradually improve their quality of life, benefitting their children and future generations. 

We run the It’s Your Call programme, which turns one off donations into recurring charity projects, the programme allows donors to decide how they want to help. 

It’s Your Call: you decide what you want to fund or build; you determine the cost. 

There are two ways you can take on an It’s Your Call project: 

• Develop your own idea or pick one of our popular It’s Your Call projects. (This could range from building a school for a poor, rural village in Indonesia to building a community well in Ghana)
• OR if your means are more limited, you can donate towards a larger commitment project, which other It’s Your Call donors are also contributing towards. (This could be a dialysis clinic in Pakistan, or a water filtration plant in Gaza)

Here are some typical projects MGR regularly runs under the It’s Your Call Programme:

You could fund the construction of a Mosque for £9,000 or get your friends and family to participate.

Part donations welcome.

You can fund the cost of a dialysis machine from £15,000 or get your friends and family to participate. Part donations welcome.

You can give the gift of water by building a handpump or a well from £170.00.

Establish a Water Filtration Plant in Gaza from £5,000.

Part donations welcome.

All of these projects if completed using Sadaqa donation become Sadaqah Jariyah - the project can span from 1 day to 100 years and maybe more.

What could be a better gift than one that will help vulnerable people around the world?

Find out more about our It's Your Call project on our website, or give us a call on 01282 604055. You can read some stories about past It's Your Call projects here.

The Season of Giving and Good Will

As the festive season approaches, and the end of 2015 is near we are taking a look back at what we have done this year around the world by creating an Advent Calendar of Achievements.

You can take a look at our Advent of Achievements as we reveal them each day on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/muslimglobalrelief

All our achievements would not be possible without such a fantastic amount of support from all our staff, volunteers and donors!

We are very proud of what we have achieved this year and would love to make them even better and bigger, you can help... Give A Gift this Christmas to someone less fortunate. You could give the gift of love by Sponsoring an Orphan, give the gift of health by donating towards our FeedMe and Water4Life projects which helps communities out of the poverty cycle by allowing them to go back to work and school instead of having to spend hours collecting water, being ill from contaminated water or lack of nutrition. Give the gift of time by becoming a volunteer, there are so many ways you can help! 

You can donate online!

By texting 'MGRS01' for a general donation | 'WATW10' for a Water Well | 'WATH10' for a Water Hand Pump | 'FEED05' for FeedMe, adding the donation amount and send to 70070. e.g. Text "MGRS01 £10" to 70070 to donate £10 to our projects. (Denominations are £1, £2, £3, £5, and £10). 

Call us on 01282 604055.

Or by post. Please make cheques payable to MGR and send to: Muslim Global Relief, PO Box 2018, Nelson, BB9 7WB

Thank you, all our beneficiaries are so grateful! Read Hadiza Musa's story here: http://muslimglobalrelief.org/water4life-hadiza-musas-story/

World Toilet Day - Around the world in 45 toilets

World Toilet Day is this Thursday (19th November) - as part of our Water4life project we want to improve sanitation for poor, vulnerable communities around the world. 

Poor sanitation causes poor health and perpetuates poverty in developing countries. Poor health means people of limited means are forced to spend money they haven’t enough of, on treatment and medicine. This is money that could otherwise be spent on food; school books; tools and materials that can generate income. Poor health also affects productivity, so that people who could be working to earn their daily bread, are unable. 

2.4 billion people around the world don't have access to decent sanitation and more than a billion are forced to defecate in the open, risking disease and other dangers, according to the United Nations. 

Even where there are toilets around the world, some hardly warrant the name, as illustrated by Reuters in a photo essay from around the world. Click below to see the video.

You can donate towards our sanitation project via our website, click here. Or you can call us on 01282 604055. 

Find out more about our Water4life project and start your own campaign... click here.

Water4Life: Fatou Khan’s Story

In Gambia, MGR works with ROCA to build water pumps and community wells. Depending on the region, a single well can provide clean water for up to 2,000 people. Families use the water for drinking, cooking, bathing, laundry and often even watering crops during dry season. Here’s how MGR’s Water4Life Project changed the life of Fatou Khan and her family in Gambia.

“My name is Fatou Khan and I am 39 years old. Where I live, it was difficult to find clean water, so we used what was available. But even to collect it, we had to walk a long distance every day. Then we had to purify it, because this water was not pure. When we drank it, it made people in my family sick, and the children frequently had diarrhoea.

Things changed when MGR and ROCA built a well in our village. The well has improved the health of my family and it has given a better quality of life to our community. The well is near our compound, so we don’t need to travel to get it every day. It is clean, so we don’t need to purify it before drinking. It is also enough to use for bathing, cooking and laundry. I thank Allah (swt), for allowing us to get clean water through MGR.”

Start your own Water4life Campaign to help another family like Fatou's.
Fatou Khan wants to work to improve her family’s quality of life. She’s willing and capable. She just needs a little help to start up, and the right opportunities. Here’s Fatou Khan’s appeal to MGR donors.
“My husband is a teacher, but his income isn’t enough to support our family of twelve. We sometimes receive food aid, or Qurbani meat during special occasions like Eid. But during the rest of the year, it is difficult to feed everyone. My husband’s second wife and I, stay at home to care for our seven children and my husband’s parents. But we would like to learn vocational skills, like tailoring and tie-dying. This will help us to earn money for our family too.”
Provide Fatou Khan with vocational training

Donate food to Fatou Khan’s family

World Food Day 2015

This World Food Day we focus on breaking the cycle of poverty in rural communities. At MGR our FeedMe project helps feed some of the world's poorest people, we work hard to uplift the poor as they struggle with poverty and hunger. With your help we can take swift action, and bring positive and lasting change to these communities.

MGR’s FeedMe project provides families with wheat grain, pulses, lentils, ghee, sugar and oil to name a few so they can have at least one nourishing meal every day.

Our project focuses on many different area's including;

• Immediate relief for emergency situations by providing relief packages (food and water). 
• Iftari/Sehri during Ramadan, helps hundreds of people a day with their daily requirements of food and water to enable them to fast.
• Qurbani provides fresh meat during the season of Eid Ul Adha.
• Aqiqah is performed on behalf of our donors in their time of happiness when they have a new addition to their families, and provides fresh meat to the poor and needy.
• Food Parcels provide essentials like milk, bread and flour as food prices have more than doubled pushing millions more into poverty, and families struggle to put a meal on the table.

How YOU can help: 
Please donate just £5.00 to give a hungry person a healthy and fulfilling meal, £60.00 to provide a family with one month’s essential food rations.

You can donate online by clicking here, call us on 01282 604055, or by post Muslim Global Relief, PO Box 2018, Nelson, BB9 7WB.

Water 4 Life - Community Well

We have recently installed a new community well in Mariam Kunda in Gambia. We would like to say a huge thank you to all our donors for making our projects possible. It will make a huge difference to the lives of people living in this community.

Please take a look at the images below:

The final week of Ramadan...

The final week of Ramadan is here – with children excited about Eid Ul Fitr, the celebration where people exchanged gifts. Yet for refugees or those living in poverty, it does not seem like a day for celebration. It is just another day, with the daily struggles and hardships. 

And they also ask you about what they should spend. Say: ‘(spend) whatever is surplus to your needs’. (Quran 2:219)

Will you choose to help?

Give gifts

MGR Eid Gifts project is specifically designed for poor and vulnerable children so that they too can have a happy and blessed Eid. No one should have to celebrate Eid without gifts, especially not children.

Zakat ul Fitr

Donate just £3 to provide a child with a gift. It must be paid before Eid prayer so that the poor can enjoy the pleasure of Eid.

Fidya

For those who are unable to fast throughout the month of Ramadan – for each missed fast please donate £6 to feed a poor person twice a day.

Please do not delay and send us your Zakat, Sadaqah, Lillah and Fitra donations today.

BRING HOPE TO LIFE TODAY…

Donate via our website or by calling 01282 604055

We give up water during Ramadan... Please GIVE WATER

During Ramadan we abstain from drinking (subject to medical constraints) to better focus our lives on prayer and meditation, but imagine not having safe water to drink all the time. 

Diseases from drinking unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Cholera can kill within a day. Children are especially vulnerable, as their bodies aren’t strong enough to fight diarrhoea, dysentery and other illnesses. 

MGR’s Water4life Project brings relief to communities around the world who suffer needlessly from a lack of access to clean water and proper sanitation. The WHO reports that over 3.6% of the global disease burden can be prevented simply by improving water supply, sanitation, and hygiene. 

Providing access to clean, safe water helps capable and determined people realise the hope they have for their own futures.

We’re passionate about unlocking potential. After all, water doesn’t change anything; the people we help with your kind donation do.

For a small investment, you can fund long-lasting water projects that serve villages, mosques and schools.

Wells and handpumps can provide a reliable source of drinking water allowing communities to become more able to grow themselves out of poverty. You can help restore hope.

We located, drilled and commissioned 6 water wells & 83 hand pumps throughout South Asia, Ghana and in Gambia. We purchased and distributed 5,000 - 2.5lt bottles of drinking water; and provided 250,000 litres of clean drinking water supplied by road tankers for the people in the Gaza Strip.

THE FACTS

• 440 million school days lost every year to water-related sickness. 

• Nearly 1 in 5 deaths under the age of five that occur due to dirty water. 

• 840,000 people die each year due to water related diseases

• Every $ invested has a return of between $3 and $34!

How You Can Help:

• ONLY £1.50 for each 2L Bottle of Water to a poor household

• £170.00 for a handpump in an area where water level is high

• £470.00 for a handpump in an area where water level is low - desert type regions

• £630.00 for a community well

Donate online: www.muslimglobalrelief.org

Or call us today to give: +44(0)1282 604055

Text WATH10 plus amount to 70070 (£1, £5 or £10)

e.g: To give £5 text WATH10 £5 to 70070

Pay your Zakat

What Is Zakat?

‘Take from their wealth so that you might purify and sanctify them.’
(The Holy Qur’an, chapter 9, verse 103)

The word Zakat means ‘purity’ or ‘to purify’ and it represents Charity; all Muslims who are wealthy enough, must perform this Charity in order to purify their wealth in the eyes of Allah (SWT). In other words, Allah blesses us with wealth; it is therefore our duty to give some of this back to those most needy, which purifies the rest of our wealth.

As one of the five pillars of Islam, it is an obligation upon all believing Muslims.

Who Needs to Pay Zakat?

To pay the Zakat, one must be a Muslim sane adult, in possession of the Nisab (the minimum amount of wealth that one must have before Zakat is payable) for one whole year.

Items from which wealth can be derived include: cattle, crops, gold, silver, and merchandise for business. Zakat must be paid on cash deposits held in bank accounts.

Any personal items from which one cannot derive wealth including cars, utensils, food, clothing, shelter, furniture and which are not to be used for trade, are not included in the calculation of Zakat.

One must not only have the minimum amount of Nisab but it must have been in one’s possession for one whole year. A lot of people choose Ramadan as the month in which they pay their Zakat; both to remember it, and also because the reward for good deeds done in this blessed month is multiplied.

Who Benefits From Zakat?

The Poor & the Needy – These people may have wealth, but not enough to make up the Nisab.

The Destitute – Such people have nothing other than the very basic necessities; they are worse off   than the poor and destitute.

Those employed to collect the Zakat – referring to those that collect as well as distribute the Zakat.

To reconcile Hearts – traditionally, this category was for new Muslims who after having become Muslim, faced extreme poverty due to their decision.

Those who are indebted, but unable to settle their debt

Those struggling in the path of Allah

Travellers who have run out of money and would therefore have no way of reaching their final destination without help.

Zakat cannot be used to build mosques, to bury the deceased, or to clear the debt of the deceased.

Zakat with Muslim Global Relief

Muslim Global Relief uses, and has always used Zakat to help some of the poorest, most needy, and the most destitute people throughout the world. Your Zakat donations bring joy to these people who know that their brothers and sisters all over the world have not forgotten them.

Your Zakat donations give hope to the poor; that one day with the help of Allah (SWT), they will be Zakat givers and not Zakat receivers.

Use our online Zakat Calculator click here

Or download our FREE app

Our Winter Cake Appeal raised £583 for Syria and Gaza.

Our Winter Cake Appeal raised a huge £583 for Syria and Gaza, thank you to all who supported our appeal, both shops will continue to sell cakes to raise funds for our ongoing projects.

So why not treat yourself to a slice of cake in the knowledge that you are helping needy and vulnerable people around the world through our projects.

Pop into either shops to treat yourself, or maybe you've got a special occasion approaching, order a full cake to share with your family and friends.

All profits from the sale of each cake will go to MGR’s on going projects. 

Call in now to order your cake - perfect for a special occasion! 

Where: 

Marhaba Ice Cream & Sweets, 83-85 Victoria Street, Blackburn, BB1 6DS - Tel: 01254 671 499

Choc Stop, 72 Manchester Road, Nelson, BB9 7EJ – Tel 01282-788206 

Latest News from Nepal

Muslim Global Relief (MGR) reached Nepal, and is working on ground helping the people. We have provided families with shelter, food packages, blankets and water. The hard work carried out by the MGR volunteers is highly appreciated, and everyone is extremely grateful for their support.

The areas selected for the distribution were:-

Kathmandu - 

• Machine Poker
• Sambho Nath
• Rathna Park

Lalit Pure

• Ingdhol
• Maldi Kheil

Gorkha

• Sindhupal Chawck
• Gawshala

Rice, Lentils, salt, Cooking oil, Spices, Roasted peas, Roasted rice, Dates, Dry Milk, Harlecs for babies, Glucose biscuits, digestive biscuits, and water.

We have set up tents for those who lost their homes. Blankets, towels, nappies, toothbrush and toothpaste were also distributed to the survivors.

Your help is needed to continue this relief operation - please donate generously. 

Please make your donations really count and help us to help the Nepalese people.  

 How YOU can help:

£60.00 can provide food for 1 family for one month

£400.00 can provide a family with shelter

£1.50 can provide 2ltr water bottle

Our funds are limited and we urgently need more support to continue our vital work:

Please donate today .

Visit www.muslimglobalrelief.org, Call MGR on 01282-604055 to make a donation over the telephone

or text your donation - MGRN10 (£1 to £10) to 70070

How ELSE YOU can help:

For just £3.00 per month you can help us to supply and distribute vital emergency relief aid in a more planned and sustained way.

Nepal hit by another major earthquake

Following April's Earthquake where over 8,000 people have been reported, has been hit by another major earthquake. 

MGR teams are already on the ground providing life saving relief items. 

Your help is needed to continue this relief operation - please donate generously. 

Please make your donations really count and help us to help the Nepalese people.  

 How YOU can help:

£60.00 can provide food for 1 family for one month

£400.00 can provide a family with shelter

£1.50 can provide 2ltr water bottle

Our funds are limited and we urgently need more support to continue our vital work:

Please donate today .

Visit www.muslimglobalrelief.org, Call MGR on 01282-604055 to make a donation over the telephone

or text your donation - MGRN10 (£1 to £10) to 70070

How ELSE YOU can help:

For just £3.00 per month you can help us to supply and distribute vital emergency relief aid in a more planned and sustained way.

Emergency Relief Aid for Nepal

We are distributing food and water packs to families in Nepal who have been affected by the Earthquake which hit last week. 

Please support our appeal so we can continue to distribute aid to those families who have lost there homes, and lives have been destroyed. 

We are distributing: Tarpaulin Tents, Food Parcels, Water Bottles, Utensil Kits

How you can help:

• £1.50 will provide a 2L bottle of water.
• £60 could provide food for 1 family for one month
• £400 could provide a family with shelter

DONATE NOW TO SUPPORT THE EFFORTS OF OUR CRISIS RESPONSE TEAM WHO ARE WORKING ON THE GROUND.

DONATING MADE EASY:

ONLINE: www.muslimglobalrelief.org

CALL: 01282 604055

TEXT: MGRN10 plus amount (£2, £3, £5, or £10)
e.g. Text code 'MGRN10 £5' to 70070