Islamic Relief Worldwide

Charity eyes UAE bodies to beef up its humanitarian services

By Jamil Khan @ Gulf Today-Sharjah, February 25, 2012

DUBAI: Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), a prominent humanitarian organisation, is now seeking to further local partnerships in the Middle East. The purpose of this move is to expand its services to a greater number of needy people in the region, as is the case of its involvement with people in other parts of the world.
This was stated by Mousab Kerwat, Institutional Funding Manager, Middle East Department of IRW in an exclusive interview with The Gulf Today at the Villa Rotana Hotel in Dubai last week.
Kerwat was in Dubai along with a high-level IRW delegation to attend a reception hosted by Rashid Paediatric Therapy Centre recently.
“Every year, the IRW spends around $140-$150 million on humanitarian projects worldwide. We have been receiving support from individuals and governments in the Middle East — both monetary and material — to enable us to carry out our humanitarian work among people, especially those living in poor countries,” he said.
“Ever since its establishment in 1984, Islamic Relief Worldwide has been supported by the UAE government and by individuals from every walk of life in the country,” Kerwat added.
Giving an example of the kind of co-operation that exists between IRW and the UAE, he revealed that some three years ago, IRW and the Sheikh Zayed Foundation had inked an agreement to implement a micro financing project worth $3 million in Bosnia, which is still running successfully.
“The UAE government has been organising conferences to assist humanitarian organisations. IRW played a leading role at one such recently-held conference which was titled “The financial challenges facing humanitarian organisations worldwide.”
Kerwat said that with IRW’s wide experience in humanitarian activities in various poor nations of Asia and Africa, it was considering partnerships in the near future with UAE-based organisations working in the relief and humanitarian fields.
“IRW has a centre for differently-abled children in Egypt and we are in the process of establishing a partnership between this centre and the Rashid Paediatric Therapy Centre, Dubai. The co-operation between the two centres is with an aim to exchange expertise and further develop both centres for the benefit of children with special needs. In this regard, we will raise funds, exchange staff to share their experience, acquire additional training and so on,” Kerwat added.
IRW, he added, was also engaged in the Middle East to provide assistance to people hit by unrest as a result of the ongoing ‘Arab Spring’.
“The IRW had established relief activities in Libya to help the affected people — especially conflict-hit refugees — by providing them food, medicine, shelter and bringing in doctors, an exercise which is now being extended to Syria and Jordan in order to provide assistance to the affected people in those two countries,” he added.
Responding to a question, Kerwat said the local events which IRW are planning to be part of include the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid & Development Conference & Exhibition (Dihad) to be held in the first week of March.
“We have been participating every year in the Dihad and are happy to share our expertise with other humanitarian organisations that come from different parts of the world. This year, we are planning to submit papers ahead of establishing our local office in Dubai, as we already have field offices in various Middle Eastern countries,” he revealed.
IRW has one of the biggest ongoing projects in Gaza, worth $50 million and catering to the needs of needy people, involving nearly 400 workers. “This besides our other projects in Iraq, Tunisia, Yemen and the latest one in Syria,” he added.
“We have a network of local offices in Europe and other developing countries, where individuals and government institutions have been extending tremendous support to our various fund-raisers. We encourage people to donate and now they have the option of opting for online donations through our website,” Kerwat said.
He pointed out that besides engaging in relief activities, IRW has been conducting training programmes for people in zones prone to earthquakes and tsunamis like Kashmir, Pakistan and Indonesia.
“Our other activities include development programmes providing seeds to farmers and sewing machines to women. The one involving women goes a long way in empowering them to support their families on the strength of their own contribution and enables them to become independent,” he said.
End

~ by jamilkhan on February 25, 2012.