Make 2009 a Successful Eid ul Adha

Alhamdulillah in 2008, IMRC performed 2653 Qurbanis (Ud’iya) feeding thousands of needy families across India.

This year in addition to our ongoing projects, IMRC thrust into helping and rebuilding the homes and lives of the victims of recent devastating flood in Andhra Pradesh.

Inshallah, with your generous support this year we plan to perform 3,500 Qurbanis feeding the needy families with Qurbani meat.

Share the Qurbani meat with others who can’t afford single meal a day.

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I have seen many disasters in the last 30 years—natural or man-made. The Andhra Pradesh flood is by far the worst.
Over 2 million people are homeless and lost everything due to the flood. The magnitude of the damage is magnified by the combination of heavy rains, over flowing rivers, and the broken Tungabhadra dam. Hundreds of villages and thousands of acres of crops just washed away; what took years and decades to build was destroyed in just a few hours. Now over two million people are in relief camps and they need everything to rebuild their homes and lives.

“I have seen many disasters in the last 30 years. …Andhra Pradesh flood is by far the worst.”

IMRC and Sahayata Trust are the first one to arrive at the affected areas with food and water, and have spent 50 Lakhs/$100,000 US. Over 100,000 cooked meals and water packets were provided initially; followed by distribution of clothes, blankets, medical supplies, masks, medicine, water purification tablets, cooking stoves, and utensils. Over 80 tons of groceries were distributed in the rural villages.

Our immediate funding target is to tap into the rehabilitation resources that are made available by the Indian government. The rehabilitation phase is such a humongous task that neither IMRC/Sahayata Trust nor any individual NGO can fund and support on its own. I am happy to report that IMRC/Sahayata Trust is the first and only (thus far) NGO meeting with Rural State and A.P. Housing Co-operative Society, a branch of the government of Andhra Pradesh spearheading the planning and re-building of 100,000 homes. The Government is offering Rs. 68,400 to build a home, while the sponsored NGO will be required to contribute minimum of Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 12,000. In consultation with local builders, the reality is more in the neighborhood of Rs. 20,000, which IMRC/Sahayata is ready to support per home.

Great News!! In our meeting with the director of A. P. Housing, our request for additional 1000 yards of land be allocated to each village for the building of communal infrastructures such as school/Masjid, children’s playground, and community center, has been approved. IMRC’s monetary contribution for 500 homes in each village is estimated at $20,000 US; plus 1 Crore to build other infrastructures will be another $50,000 US per village. Simultaneously, I am planning a Sahayata sponsored fund raising event this week in Hyderabad. Our initial target is $50,000 US. This is a good start. More will be needed and soon!

I urge all of our Muslim Brothers and Sisters in the US to help immediately. Don’t let the flood victims wait any longer for assistance.

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Manzoor Ghori
Executive Director
Reported as of 10/28/2009

1000 San Antonio Road
Palo Alto, CA 94303
www.imrc.ws
(650) 856-0440
info@imrc.ws

A few villagers got together in 1952 and started a small madarsa to teach basics of Islam to children. Today it has grown into a well managed 6-room school with 240 boys and girls. 30 of them live on premises.

This school makes sure Muslim children from Ryam and surrounding villages know the basics of Islam. A successful program in place prepares Imams and teachers to go out and teach to children in remote villages. Also, the students are prepared for today’s employment opportunities.

Courses range from basics of Islam to hifz, arabic, theology and dawah. Children also learn mathematics and also learn how to read and write in english.

The school provides free education, boarding and has been trying to meet these expenses through local donations.

The whole village gives its Zakatul fitr to the School. Surrounding households also donate food grain every week to keep up with the growing population of teachers and students in the hostel of this madrasa. On Eid-al-adh’ha the skins of all slaughtered animals are donated to the School, which is the biggest available source of income.

Students from surrounding villages as well come to this school for their basic educational needs, as there is nothing close by. Government run public schools are in bad state of affairs, with government doing little to improve the situation.

The school has some urgent needs. Please see if you can help. It is a sadaqa jaariya.
They are running out of space. They need to build 4 classrooms and a hostel with 2 rooms.

You can construct one classroom for $1550 and one hostel room for $1550.

The library lacks proper books. Help us stock the entire library with $200.

We are looking for your support. Jazakallahukhairan. Please Donate Online. Write ‘Bihar School’ In the memo.

Education
‘One teacher schools’ in underdeveloped villages of coastal Andhra. These schools would serve a multipurpose role as centres for secular and spiritual education as well as social activity. Four school buildings are almost completed, while three more are expected to be ready soon. We have earmarked two more sites and expect to begin construction there soon.

In addition to the school building and appointed teacher, villagers could also benefit from access to a basic library. We are setting up libraries in the one teacher schools, and as of now have established them in 5 villages.

We have also appointed 18 teachers in these and other villages where schools were built but were defunct due to lack of a teacher. We provide training to these teachers before they take charge of the village schools. All teachers attend the monthly training camp where they undergo refresher courses, and also provide a monthly report of their activities, so that we can monitor the progress. Working very hard to educate the villagers about the importance of education and the need for teachers. As a result, many villagers are now convinced about the need for them to participate in contributing to teacher salaries. We expect the locals in some villages to contribute one-third of teacher salaries. More important than their monetary contribution will be the resulting sense of involvement of the local villagers in these projects.

Micro-Finance
We are in the process of conducting detailed surveys to identify the demographics, occupations, unemployment, incomes, savings, educational levels, availability of credit, market forces, etc. Once the survey is completed, we will study and analyze this data to plan effective projects that can provide economic development of the region and its people. At the same time, we are looking at government schemes and the experiences of other NGOs and micro finance institutions, in order to formulate effective and efficient schemes for micro finance and economic development.

This year IMRC was able to help and make progress in over 80 projects all over India with education as the top priority. In the past IMRC has primarily engaged in catalyst activities such as providing scholarships, vocational education, or need based projects providing food or medicine. Projects launched during 2008 are designed to create long term benefits building an infrastructure that will leave a legacy for IMRC and all our donors.

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This year IMRC has successfully implemented a program of 1.2 million meals for Ramadan and has setup a massive food distribution program for the flood victims in Bihar and Assam. Also during the 2008 Ramadan season IMRC has distributed 38,000 outfits of clothing and remitted more than $480,000.

Ramadan is a special month for worship, fasting and giving. As we all know, it is through fasting that the servant of Allah is better able to understand the plight and trial of the hungry throughout the world. Every year, IMRC tries to support needy families in India during Ramadan, thanks to your Zakat, Fitra and other generous donations.

IMRC arranges community iftars in poor neighborhoods through its ‘Feed the Poor’ program.

And through ‘Eid Package’ program you can give a month’s grains and groceries for families so they can fast and cook proper suhoor and iftar. The Eid package generally consists of rice, wheat flour, cooking oil, onions and lentils (dal). Each Eid Package costs $30. In some cases, Eid clothes are included as well. Plans are in place to distribute 4000 packages.

Their destitute state made me realize how many opportunities I take for granted and made me appreciate everything Allah (swt) has given me. It was by far a humbling experience because you see the difference between the luxuries of home and bare necessities in India.

Being able to interact and fully participate with the local organizations really helped me meet a lot of amazing young individuals who had a genuine enthusiasm for making a change. Also seeing the smiling faces and high spirits, especially of the girls at the Zohra orphanage gave me hope that they can rise above all the adversities they have faced and will come to face in life.

Personally, going abroad not only changed my perspective on the world, but also gave me confidence. I now feel that I have been exposed to so many different situations, I can go ahead on my own and find a project I would like to dedicate myself to, whether it may be teaching children English or providing aid in medical clinics. For me, the experience was not just a volunteer experience but an opportunity of a lifetime that I will cherish forever.

Amina Moheyuddin
Summer Volunteer Program 2008

The meals prepared at these centres would be distributed by the Corporation authorities at select centres.These centres will be determined based on the need.Meals will also be provided free of cost to the patients of these two hospitals. Health Minister P K Sreemathi who visited Kozhikode on Monday held discussions with the Corporation authorities to give a final shape to the programme.Kozhikode has been selected as a pilot project under this scheme. If it succeeds, it would be extended to other parts of the state. Earlier, the Social Welfare Department had planned to provide meals for Rs 2. But the Corporation authorities took up the initiative to provide it absolutely free of cost with the support of NGOs. This would be a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country.The social security mission was set up to carry out special projects for the protection of the elderly, care of children affected by cancer and improvement of institutions for the care of the weak.It will also undertake training of organisations for social service. Besides, it would be involved in research and data collection on social issues.

The first project of the mission was to provide free cancer treatment for children below 18 years, which was launched recently. The hunger-free city is the second project being undertaken by the mission.The mission has a corpus of Rs 65 crore and will strive to revamp institutions under the Social Welfare Department to make them more useful to the weaker sections, create facilities for distribution of free food to the poor undergoing treatment in the Government hospitals and rehabilitate destitute patients discharged from hospital.