Many of the difficulties and hardships faced by vulnerable people in 2020 carried over into 2021. Covid-related illnesses and deaths have been on the rise, international travel limited, political instability has continued, and millions of people remain on the brink of famine.
For people in Afghanistan, Palestine, Syria, and Yemen, 2021 has been another year of conflict and upheavals. Their suffering compounded by the coronavirus pandemic and a lack of adequate healthcare.
In other parts of the world devastating earthquakes, catastrophic floods, extreme heat, and wildfires brought chaos and destruction to countries all over the world. There is little doubt that that these natural disasters have been accelerated by man-made pollution of the climate.
Very much like last year, those affected by wars, natural disasters, climate change, and poverty were affected even more than they have been in years before.
Islamic Relief continued to help people in need. Throughout the year we were still able to help more than 16 million people in 38 countries, carrying out more than 680 significant projects*.
Almost 80,000 orphans were sponsored, 1.2 million people were fed with Ramadan food packs, and more than 3.4 million people received nutritious meals from your Qurbani donations.
We were able to provide water, sanitation, and hygiene to over 840,000 people and helped almost a million others with specialist support for their livelihoods worldwide.
The distances we have needed to travel have increased, the logistics for delivering aid have become more complex, and humanitarian needs have required more urgent responses this year.
For 37 years Islamic Relief has been able to help people in need, reacting rapidly to emergencies and providing humanitarian assistance thanks to the generosity of our donors.
We would like to thank all of our donors; you have changed lives and you have saved lives.
*Figures shown are estimates as of November 2021, the final figures will be highlighted in our 2021 Annual Report.