Your zakat will support 60,000 Syria families
Agency partners with Abu Dhabi-based Tabah Foundation to distribute $175 a month to families
More than 60,000 Syrian refugee families in Jordan and Lebanon are going to be supported with direct financial aid thanks to a new online zakat donations programme that was launched in Abu Dhabi yesterday by the UNHCR and the Tabah Foundation.
The zakat platform — which has received the approval of leading Islamic scholars and institutions from the Muslim world — will provide the Syrian families with $175 a month to help them cover their daily living expenses. Donations can only be made online and through its official website — zakat.unhcr.org — according to the programme’s organisers, who promised that all donations sent would be used for the families only.
“Our goal is to bring life saving aid more quickly and more efficiently, and to increase resources available to assist the victims of conflict and persecution,” said Tobi Howard, head of UNHCR office in the UAE.
Houssam Chahine, head of private sector partnerships for the UNHCR in the Mena region, said the direct cash assistance would give families more spending freedom and would cover up to 50 per cent of their expenses.
With an aim to financially support 60,000 Syrian refugee families living in Jordan and Lebanon, the UNHCR — the UN’s agency for refugees — in partnership with Tabah Foundation yesterday launched a global zakat platform, which ensures that donations go straight to refugees.
Each family signed up for the programme will receive direct cash assistance of $175 (Dh842) to help them cover monthly living expenses.
Speaking at the launch of the zakat platform, Tobi Harward, head of UNHCR office in the UAE, said: “[Our goal] is to bring life-saving aid more quickly and more efficiently, and to increase resources available to assist the victims of conflict and persecution. Governments, philanthropists, foundations, the private sector, UN agencies and the general public have a shared responsibility to come together in the service of humanity.”
Houssam Chahine, head of private sector partnerships for UNHCR in the Mena region, said the direct cash assistance would give families more spending freedom. “All families will get $175 a month. That money will help them pay for things like rent, some of their secondary health care costs and food expenses,” he said.
“It’s not a very large amount, but it can still meet around 30 to 50 per cent of their expense needs. In Jordan, only 20 per cent of refugees live in camps, and in Lebanon there are no camps for Syrians. So most of these refugees live in urban areas having to face daily expenses like everybody else.”
Chahine said the programme will be transparent. “There is going to be an auditing process. Tabah Foundation will be involved in making sure the money is being used right. We are also going to have quarterly reports published online.”
Noor Al Deen Harthi, chief executive officer of Tabah Foundation, said: “Our cooperation with UNHCR over the zakat initiative is built on shared values. Through this partnership, we provide UNHCR with technical expertise and knowledge.”