UK coronavirus response

Families unable to pay rent, heat homes or buy food

Covid-19 has brought the way of life of millions of people in the UK to a standstill. Many communities are finding themselves in vulnerable situations financially and emotionally, sometimes suffering from the virus itself and lacking essential support.

Families which were already struggling to make ends meet now find themselves unable to pay rent, heat homes or buy food.

Muslim households in particular are struggling, with 1 in 2 Muslim households in the UK living in poverty and deprivation, compared to 1 in 5 of the general UK population.

Whilst supporting vulnerable communities across the globe, we are also working hard to help those in need here in the UK. Islamic Relief is therefore supporting the country’s most vulnerable people through local charity partners.

National Zakat Foundation: Hardship Fund

We’ve donated £350, 000 to the National Zakat Foundation Hardship Fund to support vulnerable people across the UK during this difficult period.

This is enabling vulnerable people to get essential funds to buy essential urgent items such as food, toiletries and nappies.

Just one of the many people the project has been helping is Muhammad.

Having lost his construction job due to the pandemic, Muhammad found himself fighting a losing battle to pay his rent and provide for his wife and two young children. Forced to spend two days without any energy supply or food, Muhammad finally got the help he needed thanks to NZF and Islamic Relief.

In north-west London, in one of Brent’s most disadvantaged neighbourhoods, Sufra NW London provides a life-line for people in crisis – including families living in extreme poverty and people who are vulnerable, homeless and socially isolated.

With the added pressures of coronavirus, Sufra NW London has expanded the remit of its Community Kitchen service. It is now delivering up to 500 hot meals every week instead of serving 50 meals on their premises once a week.

Using Islamic Relief funding, they’ve been able to distribute 7,000 food parcels to vulnerable people in the local community. Our funding is also helping to support the running costs of the van that delivers these parcels and the cost of warehouse storage for the food.

CW Plus: Chelsea and Westminster Hospital ICU

With more patients requiring hospital admission as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak, we partnered with CW+, the official charity of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, to help support facilities in their newly-expanded Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

This includes providing financial support to fund syringe pumps, which will deliver precise amounts of fluid and medicines to patients in the ICU at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

We also helped to fund seven portable workstations, which will allow healthcare practitioners in ICU to access all patients’ integrated care systems at any bedside, at any time.

Fareshare: Feeding Vulnerable People

Since the Covid-19 crisis began, FareShare have seen the volumes of food their warehouses are handling double, and the number of charities that have been signing up to receive food triple. In order to ensure demands can be met, their vans are making more trips and delivering to more charities than usual.

We’ve provided critical funding to FareShare to cover the costs of transporting increased volumes of food from food companies to the Regional Centres and purchasing food.

During this crisis, FareShare has been purchasing food in order to meet the current demand that Covid-19 has caused. Islamic Relief is contributing towards this effort to help our charity partners make crisis food packs – delivering food to their service users’ front doors.

The Felix Project: Food Distribution

With increasing numbers of individuals and families struggling with food poverty during the Covid-19 pandemic, we partnered with the Felix Project to provide critical aid to people in need.

Rescuing food that cannot be sold and would otherwise go to waste, a small team of staff at the Felix Project check, sort and deliver food to frontline charities, primary schools and holiday programmes in London to support people in need.

As the largest food redistributor in London, The Felix Project collects or receives deliveries from over 300 food suppliers including supermarkets, wholesalers and farms.

In May 2020 alone, the Felix Project carried out 15 hub deliveries, 361 direct charity deliveries and donated 128 tonnes of food (enough food for 305,000 meals).

Green Lane Mosque (IWAQF): Welfare And Burial Support

With the tragic increase in deaths during this pandemic, mosques and Muslim burial services are in demand to provide safe and appropriate services. During this pandemic, we’re working with Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham to support their Muslim burial service.

Our financial support helped to:

• Provide PPE equipment and safe disposal units
• Repurpose funeral washing facilities
• Operate a bigger mobile mortuary

This critical support enables the mosque to carry out Islamic funerals in the safest way, all in line with Islamic criteria.

The Muslim Youth Helpline provides pioneering faith and culturally sensitive services to Muslim youth in the UK.

With an increase in calls of 313% during the Covid period, the phone lines are a vital lifeline to those wishing to talk to someone about their mental health. Helpline officers have answered calls from many young people struggling with suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and religious guilt.

Islamic Relief UK has been able to support Muslim Youth Helpline by providing them with £30,000 to ensure that the work continues and all calls to the helpline are answered.

To help meet the needs of families who are struggling in times of need, we partnered with the Myriad Foundation to support their essential work. This has provided food parcels during the pandemic to support people in need in the Greater Manchester area during their time of crisis.

As a result, over 300 people received weekly food parcels which included dry food items and essential goods. Along with provided food parcels, volunteers were also on hand to support local communities during lockdown, providing critical services such as food deliveries.