Background
United For Change began as a result of a recent trip to Mali. In West Africa, specifically, and throughout the continent, generally, the devastation and debilitation of malaria cripples the lives of many and kills over a million people annually.
In parts of Africa, and other regions in the Muslim world, poverty prevents people from being equipped with the proper bedding and preventative medicine needed to avoid this horrible disease.
Unfortunately, The Islamic world has not prioritized the eradication of malaria, and are not financially willing to absorb the cost needed to manage it. As a result, every thirty seconds somewhere an African child dies because of the failure to seriously confront the onslaught of this debilitating disease. Because of the scarcity of medicine, the lack of preventative education, and netting needed to ward off the malaria mosquito, this disease has lingered far too long and taken the lives of far too many.
Why Malaria: There are ten factors why United For Change is placing Malaria as one of its 2009 priorities:
- Annually in Africa Malaria affects approximately 420 million individuals
- One million of those cases are fatal
- The hardest hit population are children under five; an African child dies every 30 seconds; 3,000 daily
- Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable
- 12 billion dollars a year is lost because of the disease due to shrinkage of foreign investments, tourism and children out of school
- Adequately supplying bed nets with a five year life span and with a cost of less than $7, a step that would prevent many of the fatalities caused by this disease, has proven difficult
- The United States eradicated Malaria in the 1950’s, proving the disease is eradicable, however 30% of the world is still at risk
- There are no Muslim groups in Africa effectively dedicated to eradicating Malaria
- There are Muslims in America with family members living with Malaria in Africa, and others who have been themselves afflicted by the disease
- Malaria is a scourge we all would agree is identifiable, manageable, and with human will, eradicable.
Vision
United For Change is dedicated to helping to bring about a world where the loftiest principles of Islam are actualized as the basis for Muslim unity as well as focused, purposeful work directed towards the alleviation of human suffering that is directly attributable to human neglect, insensitivity and wantonness.
Mission
United For Change exists to facilitate the unity of Muslim organizations in North America to address through collective action monumental tasks that are larger than the human and material resources of any individual group. Through this effort we aim to foster greater unity, cooperation and goodwill between participating groups and organizations and to be a source of compassion, empathy and relief for impoverished and marginalized communities both here in North America and abroad.
MashaAllah Tabaraka Allah.
May Allah guide you and give you success
MashaAllah. It is time for us Muslims to come out of complacency and help humanity specifically our Muslim brothers. May Allah keep of steadfast. Amen.
This makes me so happy.
I can’t wait to help out as much as I can inshaallah
It’s time.
Jazakhallah Khair for all those who started this.
It’s amazing to see Muslims being so creative and dynamic to challenge the problems faced by the Ummah. May Allah (swt) make this initaive prosper and successful.
As-salamu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh,
Ma sha’a Llah, such a nice and informative site and cause. We need to be united as muslims. May Allah make this organisation successful and give it all the HELP it might need. May the Prophet (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) be happy for this project and for all of you
Allah Hafiz
Abidah
Alhamdulilah… I’ve been waiting for an organization like this. May Allah accept your efforts and bless your families for all your work…
We need Billion Dollars charity organisation, for the sake of Allah, to help people in dire condition.
greetings to all…!
question: why are you so late in this endeavor?
it is high that you preachers stop preaching … and start doing God’s work, that is, “helping others.”
as noted in the noble Text: “belief and good works” will take you to jannah al firdaws!
now, where shall i send my money…????
wa salamu ‘alaykum
The good will in the air is palpable.
Assalamu aleikum.
May Allah SWT bless you and guide you in all your efforts. May all of you be rewarded for these efforts with Jannat-ul-Firdaus in a place close to Rasulullah SAW.
I had falciparum malaria in 1991 and it is devastating. Alhamdulillah it was quickly discovered after I became delirious and alhamdulillah I subsequently quickly recovered with chloroquine, although I was left weak for many months.
I do encourage you to change the wording of the tenth factor mentioned in the “Background” above, which is presently written: “Malaria is a scourge we all would agree is identifiable, manageable, and with human will, eradicable.” Please replace “with human will” with “insha’Allah” so it reads: “Malaria is a scourge we all would agree is identifiable, manageable, and insha’Allah, eradicable.” Anyone else who has experienced falciparum will appreciate that it is a scourge the personal outcome of which has a lot less to do with human will and a lot more to do with Allah’s will.
Wasalaam.
Assalama alaikum:
Mansha Allah, I think this is the biggest project ever taken by Muslims in the US regarding Malaria. May Allah support all our efforts and directs us to the right path. I believe there are already new medicine which is cheap to produce but which is not not available for poor countries. But if joined hands together, it can be done and will make it easier to distribute and eradicate Insha allah;
Wa alaikuma salaam;
Abdullah
Salaamualikum
Great Work!