Ramadan Food Basket Program

Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) Relief USA organized a “Ramadan Food Basket Program” to provide needy Muslim families with nutritious non-perishable food items, as well as toys, for the Eid holiday. Food baskets were given to more than 250 refugee families from Iraq, Somalia, Burma and Russia, and other low income families living in the Chicago area.

Donors were encouraged to help a student from a refugee family by donating school supplies, which were dropped off at a new thrift store located at 17 W 731 Roosevelt Rd., Unit D., Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181.

ICNA Relief USA has helped provide food, temporary shelters, a mobile kitchen, domestic violence counseling and workshops, and eviction prevention to more than 5,000 people, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, since its inception in 2005. It also collaborates with other social services agencies to raise awareness on various health issues, including TB, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, HIV/AIDS and other concerns.

ICNA Relief USA recently launched a temporary housing unit in Queens, NY for both Muslim and non-Muslim women, in order to help protect and house the most vulnerable members of the community. Women receive counseling, training and referrals to public housing. ICNA Relief USA also provides transitional housing for Muslim men, including men recently released from prison who need “a step up.”

While many other hurricane relief agencies have closed, the ICNA Relief Ike Recuperation Center, established in Galveston, TX in September 2008, still is helping the needy six days per week. ICNA Relief USA director of Texas operations Mohammad Saad Ansari and more than 100 volunteers of many races, ethnicities, and both genders serve the still-struggling community.

ICNA Relief workers are actively trying to establish services for the needy of any religion in poor neighborhoods in cities throughout North America. They have already started a family counseling service in New York, where they also are in the process of establishing a soup kitchen. ICNA volunteers believe in giving a helping hand, not a handout, and creating conditions in which people actively participate in the development process.

If you would like to help establish any service for the needy in your city, or would like to assist in any other way, please contact ICNA Relief USA, 87-91 144th St., Jamaica, NY 11435, or phone: (718) 658-7028

—Malika Rushdan, director of community development at ICNA Relief USA