Zakat Foundation of America gives about $2 million a year in Bangladesh and plans to increase it, its global president Halil Demir told Desh Rupantor in an interview during a visit to Dhaka on Wednesday. The charity runs humanitarian and development work in more than 50 countries.
In Bangladesh its work centres on health care, care and sponsorship of orphans, education, and improving the lives of families and local communities, Demir said. It brings children in areas without formal schooling into education, and its health centres give children vaccinations and other services.
Explaining the plan to increase support, he said political and economic changes have created new challenges, with many families struggling under debt and high interest rates. That, he said, is why he made the visit.
Many of the families helped through the orphan sponsorship programme are headed by single mothers, and the charity is considering setting them up in small businesses rather than only giving monthly support, he said. It also wants to work with young people in slums: it is studying which sectors need workers and which skills lead to jobs, with a plan to train them accordingly.
Among the main challenges he named man-made crises such as war and violence, obstruction by armed groups or states in some areas, and adapting to different cultures. To make sure aid reaches the right people, he said, the charity has several layers of monitoring, field visits and checks at different stages. The interview was conducted by Nazmul Islam of Desh Rupantor.
Photo: Maqivi / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0); a representative picture of zakat distribution
Source: Desh Rupantor
Comments
(0)