Islamic Relief's office in Palestine launched its orphans welfare programme in early 1999, to provide assistance to Palestinian orphans and their families.

Guardians receive four payments a year to cover the orphan's basic needs, such as food, clothing, housing needs, and health and education expenses. Islamic Relief also takes care of their medical needs and organises summer camps.

The main purpose of this project is to assist orphaned children through direct sponsorship. Sponsored children have regular health checks, and receive school uniforms and bags fully equipped with all the stationery they will need.

The Orphan Welfare Program currently sponsors more than 4,000 orphans with a total budget of 4.2 million dollars.

The program offers help in the form of financial support. Quarterly payments of 114 Euros are distributed to orphans through the one to one project. Additionally, extra money and gifts provided by some sponsors to their orphans are also delivered to the orphans.

Islamic Relief also organises summer camps for children in our orphan sponsorship programme. This year, 2,265 orphans took part in 22 camps were organised across Gaza and the West Bank.

Project Objectives

• provide financial assistance to orphans and their families;
• provide social activities
• support educational needs
• monitor health of orphaned children
• help integrate orphaned children into society

Project Activities

·       Registration of new orphans

·       Liaising with orphan support organizations.

·       Distribution of Sponsorship Money

·       follow up visits to orphans to assess their living conditions and eligibility for the sponsorship.

·       Maintain continuous communications between the orphans and their respective sponsors, through progress reports, regular thank-you letters and photos.

"Islamic Relief is striving for a fairer world. Our mission is to help the poor and needy to live sustainable, self-reliant lives within safe and caring communities. Our work is guided and shaped by the core values of accountability, humanitarianism, neutrality and impartiality, inclusiveness, integrity and co-operation, all of which are also integral to the Islamic faith."
Dr Hany El Banna - Founder of Islamic Relief

Islamic Relief was established in 1984 and our unique approach is the result of these many years of hands-on experience.

1. Where possible we adopt a community partnership-based approach; encouraging community involvement, understanding and ownership of projects.
2. We run the majority of our field projects ourselves, giving us direct insight into the problems faced and how best to solve them.
3. We aim to empower those we help in order to achieve sustainable results.
4. Though our emergency response teams are quick to respond to emergencies around the world, we continue to support communities long after the initial media interest has died down.
5. We recruit staff locally to benefit from their local knowledge. This ensures that we are culturally sensitive and allows us to reach communities and areas other organisations cannot.
6. Where necessary we coordinate our work with other reputable aid agencies, local organisations and governments.

Millennium Development Goals

Islamic Relief is committed to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which have been agreed by the world’s leading development institutions in an effort to meet the needs of the world’s poorest by the year 2015. 

The goals:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

For more information about the MDGs, please visit: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/