An earthquake measuring magnitude 7.4 has struck Turkey, causing significant damage in several cities including Kahramanmaras, Adana & Gaziantep . Many buildings have collapsed, leaving many people injured and homeless. Emergency services are currently working to rescue those trapped and provide aid to those affected. The government has declared a state of emergency and is working to provide support to the affected communities. Our teams are on the ground assessing the situation and how we can support the relief effort. Your donations can help provide food, shelter, medical care and many other support to those in need.
Lebanon is a Middle East country with a surface area of 10.452 km2. More than 6 million people are living in the country and more than half of it is Muslims. The country has Mediterranean climate: winters are cold and rainy; summers are hot and arid. Due to being an ex-French-mandate, French and English are spoken besides Arabic and Armenian. Its independency was acknowledged on 1st January 1944.
After the Arab-Israeli war in 1967, so many Palestinians migrated to Lebanon. The Christians in the country started to be uncomfortable and armed up because of the increasing Muslim population. These incidents caused an internal disturbance, starting from 1975 to the beginning of 1990s. After the frictions that happened with Israel and Syria, the internal state of the country is still not recovered completely.
The main sources of living are agriculture, industry, construction, commerce, tourism, banking business, hotel management, media, consultancy and engineering. Especially Beirut has the most important trading shore of Middle East and East Mediterranean Sea. Because of the high-quality manpower of the country, there isn’t any problem about international trade.
The Muslims in Lebanon
One of the most important internal matters is refugees. Palestinians are banned from working in72 areas and most of them must live in camps to where the government never bring service. Even the security of the camps is provided by the refugees living there, and the refugees fight with each other, as well. Although the exact number is unknown, it is assumed that more than 500 thousand Palestinians are living in the country. Also, many Syrian refugees migrated to Lebanon after the civil war that was caused by the Arab Spring. According to the records, there are more than 1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon. When we look at these numbers, we can say that 25% of the population of Lebanon is refugees. Since so many Sunni Muslims are living in Lebanon, Christians and the Shi’a are being uncomfortable about this, thus the situation threatens the peace environment.
Big Disaster in Lebanon: Fuel Tanker Exploded
Lebanon has been dealing with fuel crisis for quite a while. After Lebanon Central Bank stopped fuel subvention, fuel prices started increasing rapidly. People waiting outside of the fuel stations caused long queues. Furthermore, because of the fuel shortage, when a power cut occurs the generators in the hospital cannot work and this threatens the lives of the dialysis patients and the ones using respirators. Moreover, a fuel tanker exploded in Akkar District. 28 people lost their lives and 80 people were injured. We, IHCRO, couldn’t remain unresponsive and started an urgent help appeal. We delivered help to the injured and the families. May Allah grant a swift recovery to all the injured and may Allah bless everyone who passed away. May Allah grant patience to the ones who lost their loved ones.
Our work reveals how sensitive we are about orphans. We spend a large part of our resources to find solutions to the problems of our orphan brothers and sisters. We have never considered the work done on this path sufficient, and we never will. Because we consider our orphans as our own family. Just as we take care of our own children and siblings, as we worry about their problems and dote on them, we share the same sensitivity for our orphan brothers and sisters who are miles away from us and try to live accordingly. Thankfully we are not alone on this path. Our donors, who agree with us and do not hesitate to spend their resources for their orphan brothers and sisters, have stood by us from the very beginning.
Orphan Aid Reached Iraq
As we mentioned in our previous articles, unfortunately, Iraq is a country that comes first in terms of orphan population. The reason for this is, of course, the years of war. Unfortunately, despite being a very rich country in terms of underground resources, Iraq cannot benefit from these resources. It can even be said that these resources are a nuisance to the country. Rich oil resources make the imperialist states lick their lips. The imperialists, who cannot reach these resources in their own lands, are establishing dominance over the countries that they can bite down on and that have these resources with various tricks. As a result of this domination, what is left of the country is pain, grief, and poverty. This is what happened to Iraq as well. Unfortunately, the US occupation, which lasted for years, left hundreds of orphans behind.
IHCRO Besides Iraqi Orphans
In a bulletin we shared about the oppressed orphans of Iraq, we mentioned that a special aid will be given to these brothers and sisters. Apart from the orphan campaigns that we regularly deal with and carry out, this time we organized a special campaign for our Iraqi orphan brothers and sisters. As a part of this campaign, we provided financial assistance to 150 orphans. We delivered the aids to our brothers and sisters in a program where they could have fun and be happy. May Allah be pleased with everyone who contributed to this campaign that made our orphan brothers smile and relieved their troubles a little bit.
The civil war and humanitarian crisis in Syria has left its 11th year behind. Hundreds of thousands of civilians lost their lives in the country, where war crimes such as chemical weapons, efforts to starve the people, blockade and torture were committed.
More than six million people had to leave their country 11 years ago, which was estimated to have an average population of twenty-two million. More than three and a half million of these immigrants took refuge in Turkey. But it is estimated that at least fourteen million civilians are currently in need of humanitarian assistance in Syria.
As International Human Care and Relief Organization, we distributed two hundred food packs in a camp in the region. Thanks to our distribution of food parcels, which are vital for people living in the camp and especially children, who cannot even meet their basic needs such as food, approximately one thousand families will have access to basic nutrients.
The 11-year humanitarian crisis continues and our organization continues to help the Syrian people as much as possible. Many families have benefited from our assistance and will continue to benefit from it.
While we continue our projects supporting Quran students and education in many countries, our project openings are being completed one by one. We opened our Ibn Al-Jawzi Quran school, which was completed last week and started its activities, in Gaza. Our Quran school, whose opening was attended by state officials, will serve our young people in the region. We started our Quran school campaign last Ramadan and today this beautiful charity of ours has started to serve.
Our Quran students will meet their accommodation needs in addition to their education at our school. At the same time, our young people will be able to socialize in their spare time around our Quran school, which has social facilities.
Indeed, We have granted you a clear triumph O Prophet so that Allah may forgive you for your past and future shortcomings, perfect His favour upon you, guide you along the Straight Path, and so that Allah will help you tremendously. (Al-Fath 1-3)
We hope that this project, which we started with the good news given to us by these beautiful verses, will be beneficial.
In Gaza, which has been under siege for many years, our youth continue their Quran education under difficult conditions, and it is the responsibility of each of us to support these youth. Allah bless those who contributed.
Our new school in Yemen is coming up wonderfully. In the Hudaida province, in an area where school is at the most dire need, IHCRO is building this new 4 classroom school.
Many years of conflicts destroyed Yemen and especially children have been affected. School infrastructure has been collapsed. Many school has been destroyed. Children are not able to go to school for their future, for all of our future. It is one of the most important issue to solve the poverty. Therefore, education has to be protected.
In many countries, we are building schools to give opportunity to the children for equal rights. We know that they are the future of our world and if they are well developed, they can end the poverty.
We have built over 10 schools until now in Yemen and aiming at 20 soon.
We met Şifa, our three-year-old Syrian refugee daughter, two months ago. She was born deaf and had to have a cochlear implant due to her illness, she. Şifa’s family, like many families, could not afford this surgery, as the costs of such surgeries were very high.
Cochlear implant surgery is generally applied to patients who cannot benefit from hearing aids, but who have severe hearing loss in both ears. Congenital or acquired severe or very advanced hearing loss can be treated with this application. These surgically applied tools allow people to hear sounds even if they have completely lost their hearing.
Şifa’s cochlear implant and equipment were covered by our donors, and after two months of doctor visits, her surgery was completed. Our daughter, who was born deaf, started to hear her first voices after a few checks and the insertion of her device. Now, when her mother or father calls, everything will be different for Şifa. We, as IHCRO, sent Şifa and her family to her home with the happiness of being able to touch one more of our daughters.
