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Name
AbdAllah
- United States
Profession
Newspaper Worker
Question
Peace be with you.
I am of the opinion that the West (particularly the US) conducted relief operations for propaganda purposes -- as a way of saying "We Care". Do you agree and what do you think the so-called average guy on the street in the affected regions thinks?
Thank You.
Answer
Wa alaikum salaam, thank you for your question.
Many of the large and rich countries pledged millions of dollars for the tsunami and earthquake affected areas but in many cases these pledges didn’t materialise on the ground for one reason or the other. ICR, as a small charity, is dependent on generous donations from the guys on the street who have been very supportive and in many cases they feel that by supporting supporting small and specialist charities like ours is a better way to help those who have been affected. We try and help the children of Indonesia and we do that by working with locally established charities, we feel that this is the most effective way of getting the help to those who desperately need it.
Name
siti
- Malaysia
Profession
teacher
Question
Assalam alaikum. i'm very hapy to hear about all your eforts to help the victims of the tsunaami. i want to ask if you have had any problems transferring funds from the UK or any place where donations are made to the disaster region. and if you have had problems, how did you get around them. we are trying to do relief efforts and are having trouble in this area. thanking you for your advice
Answer
Wa’Alikum Assalam,
I am very pleased to hear from you and commend all the brothers and sisters that are working to relief the suffering of those that have been inflicted with natural disasters. In our experience we have not had any major problem transferring funds Alhamdulillah. Our advice will be that you establish a good working relationship with a reputable and trusted local charity where
you would like to transfer the donations, also try to transfer the funds over a period of time, i.e. if you are looking at transferring 10,000, try and send it in three different instalments over a period of 6 months.
Name
jamiil
- South Africa
Profession
Question
salams. with all the disaster and people getting killed and family broken apart id like to know what is happening one year later concerning the family structure. i mean how do people build their family unit again after losing so many members of the family? and how are people coping who lost all their family members? may Allah bless you all for your wonderful efforts to help others. i love this website. thanks
Answer
Wa alaikum salaam.
It is a real problem faced by the people up there, but the community have their own coping stategy. Religious value is the bigest influence over these strategies. For example how the orphans cope with their lives. The extended family and the community take responsibility in looking after them. But due to the large number of orphans, support from other organizations is still needed.
Name
mona
- Egypt
Profession
Question
Salam alikom, what do you think will be the long term consequence for the region after this disaster. do you think things will ever be better again or normal?
Answer
ICR has been doing a program in order to support the Orphaned in one area in Aceh Besar. There are many orphaned in this area but so far we still support 50 children. We are scaling up our program and planning to support 300 children.
Name
elaine
- United Kingdom
Profession
Question
hello and thanks for your fine work. i commend you for your diligence. i would like to ask what you noticed about the people who survived the disaster - in terms of character, strength, resilience. and can you give us some examples of courage and magnitude. it's a dark world in our times and sometimes stories like that can inspire the rest of us. thanks so much
Answer
Thank you for your question.
There are two groups of survivors, as I observe. In the early stages, there were some people who felt hopeless and suffered deep trauma, they even lost their minds by facing such a terrible situation. They lost all their family members and properties.
But we found another group of people who became even strongger than they before, they did their best to recover.
From a religious point of view, many people learn a big lesson from such a disaster. It takes them back to the right path. The unity of the community became stronger, they helped each other and shared everything they have with each other.
After 6 months from the disaster we observed there is a dependancy mentality of the people. They highly rely on aid. But as time is passing, the situation is getting better and many of them are starting their lives again, livelihood activities, home businesses and any other coping strategy to earn their income.
Name
salwa
- United Kingdom
Profession
Question
Salam alaikum, we have been studying the tsunami disaster at school and i found it really interesting. i wish i could go and help over there. so i was wondering what area of expertise of people do you need to help. i want to know this so i can plan my studies for the next few years to prepare myself to work with you all. Allah be with you.
Answer
w'alaikm salam.
Thanks for your attention, you really show interest. The people up there desparately need an English teacher. They lost alot of teachers in the tsunami. Hope you will be there one day and you can do much to help, for instance training other local teachers, to be a good english teacher.
For this you have to take the subject English as a Foreign Language
Name
alex badr
- United Kingdom
Profession
Question
Salams, I would like to know if you have raised enough money for your projects and if not, how much more do you need?
Also what are your ongoing support programs? Could you please explain how it all works.
Answer
W'alaikum salam,
We do need a lot of money for our project, the money we have now will not be enough for this project. The orphanage house with the school facilities, hall, masjid and clinic for at least 300 children needs to be completed.
It will require lot of money and we also need at least $30 per month per child for their monthly expenses. That amount will cover school fees, food, clothes, cost for health services, but that does not include cost for the caregiver.
Its mean that the mountly need for the children only is about 300 x $30 = $ 9000. Right now we have 50 children, which require $1500 per month
We really appreciate your willingness to support this project and you are welcome to select any way to support us. It might be by setting up your monthly standing order or in the form of big lump sum.
Your intention counts, may Allah give you strength to carry out your intention.
Name
faiyaz
- United Kingdom
Profession
Question
Assalamu alaikum.
Could you tell us what you are actually doing over there in terms of this new village?
Answer
W'alaykumsalam, thank you.
The reason we would like to build the village is because they lost their original villages. Imagine, amongst 28 villages there were only 4 left, wiped out by the Tsunami. We would like to build the house for orphans, school, hall, mosque/meunasah, playcenter, library, labaratory both for language and science, clinic, shops ..etc
The village we are building is away from the coast, right at the foot of the hill, fertile, lushgreen and it's beautiful. So we can educate the children to do the farming, fishery for their future, etc so that they can sustain themselves, insha Allah.
Name
janine
- United Kingdom
Profession
Question
Hi, I admire you efforts and struggle with the victims of this awful disaster. I would like to ask about how the children are keeping up with their education. are they keeping up and if not, what needs to be done? Thank you.
Answer
Hi there...thank you for your support.
When we went there last February it was quite devastating. Our focus is always the children. It sadenned us to see them scattered everywhere. They could not go to school for the first three months. There were emergency schools, set up by some NGO's in the tents, just to ease their trauma. Slowly and surely we all worked hard to facilitate any building for temporary school and it is getting better. Now there are so many prefabrictaed buidling that were built by international and national organisations so chldren have started their schooling.
Name
muslimah
-
Profession
Question
Is there a website for your charity? Is it a 501 3 c?
What about relief organizations like Islamic Relief (www.irw.org) - Have they been helpful?
How does someone know more about your organizaation and donate?
Answer
Thanks fot the question, our website is www.icruk.org, email : info@icruk.org
About other organizations like Islamic Relief, they also did a briliant job in supporting the victims. We worked together with them and Muslim Aid in the early stages.
Name
lawal
- Nigeria
Profession
student
Question
Salam alaekum.
Who is the AMIR MUSLIM of this world, and what are their efforts in this type of a disaster?
Answer
Wa'alaikum salam, Brother/Sister...
Let's do our best in what ever way we can. Many Muslims from different countries, from the Gulf, Malaysia, Turkey are there. They are all there but they won't appear in the media as they don't need to. They are all doing their best. We invite you to come along, so you can see it for your self, 'seeing is believing'.
Name
robin ahmed
- United Kingdom
Profession
Question
Salams
I would like to know what the Muslim youth can do to raise money for charities like yours. Could you give me some suggestions of ways to fund raise? Thanks
Answer
Wa alaykum salaam
Where are you sister/brother? Are you in UK or somewhere else? If you are in the UK we can set up a meeting, discuss and organise a way to do fundraising. You can do many things for fundraising. You can organise an event, bazaar, discussion, or spread awareness among your colleges/university students or any one around you. You also can collect money from stations, shops, musjids, churches and you can develop any other ideas.
Thanks for your wllingness to support the victims.
