Time escapes us, doesn’t it? We’re now only 8 short days away from Ramadan coming to a close. With these incredibly blessed last days/nights upon us, many of us are likely reflecting on our Ramadan, our past year, our future needs & duas. As you spend the next week seeing friends/family at upcoming iftars and at the masjid, you’re probably thinking you need some conversation starters beyond the old “what have you been have for suhoor” line, right? Well, we’ve got that for you, read on…

How many of us over the course of the past few months, have spend money dining out, going to the movies, buying a coffee, pampering ourselves, etc.? Alhamdullilah, we’re blessed with the means to do so & we should absolutely take care of ourselves and our loved ones. At the same time, you’d be surprised how impactful a mere dollar can be in another part of the world.

For us, $10-15 means a nice warm lunch or dinner. For so many in India, $1 means a warm meal. For us, $5 means a nice coffee on your way to work. For someone else, $5 means being able to finally see a doctor. For us, groceries to stock the house can rack us up a receipt of $100. For families in underprivileged parts of India, $25 means being fed for the entire month.

We challenge you to do something this Ramadan: if you’re able to put away $1 per day, for 7 months, you will have enough stashed away to feed an entire village. How crazy is that? You can start this challenge now & donate later or you can donate now and save your $1 a day to recuperate your donation. Either way, your $1/day will stretch incredibly far for people who need it, for people who will thank you even though they don’t know you. Their duas and their gratitude towards you will reach where it matters most.

In 2018, IMRC was able to provide:
– 92,463 warm meals to people who needed them most
– Perform 5,000 cataract surgeries
– Place 693 water wells in areas where it was essential

These numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. As you can see below, our dollars make huge impacts for our Muslim brothers and sisters in india. Let this be motivation to be a conversation starter at your upcoming iftars; get a group of friends or family members together to pledge towards an impactful, tangible action. You can grab 10 friends, each pledge $250, and have a water well built in your name. Imagine being able to tell the little ones in your family that you’ve built a school in India.

Nothing we do is possible without your help & contributions. While we’ve made strides in education, healthcare and feeding over the past few years, we have lots more to achieve and thousands more people to tend to. To do that, we need your help in spreading the word about what $1 can do.

IMRC’s free health camp concludes at Dehradun; 4,380 patients treated in three states

Dehradun: The eighth annual India Health Initiative-2017, a program created by US-based NGO, India Muslim Relief and Charities (IMRC) to provide medical services to poorest of poor in India, concluded with a note of ‘religious harmony’ at Dehradun on February 12th.

The three-day free health camp, which treated 886 patients in Dehradun was organised at Kagyu College, an institute of traditional higher Buddhist philosophical and scriptural study.

On Day 1 of the camp, 377 patients were treated, while 328 and 181 patients were treated respectively on Day 2 and 3. Buddhists from Ladakh and Tibet along with the local Muslim populace were treated for different health-related issues.

As a part of 8th IHI, free health camps were organised for 11 days in three Indian States: Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, and Uttarakhand from January 28 to February 12, 2017, where 4,380 poor patients were treated by volunteer US-based doctors.

At Dehradun, free health camps were coordinated by IMRC with International Drikung Kagyu Council (IDKC.)

“It was the very first time that such a health camp was organised in our monastery and it was a real wonderful experience working with IMRC. People who got treated in the camps were all praise for the doctors. More than a free health camp, it was also symbol of religious harmony, since a Muslim NGO organised health camps for Buddhist people,” said Khenpo Rangdol, the local coordinator of health camps.

In the camps, patients are treated after a free check-up of vital health signs , besides free pathological tests and X-ray was also provided along with the free medicines.The cases which needed follow-up were compiled into a list and referred to the local doctors whose expenses will be paid by IMRC.

Dr. John Rosenberg, a California-based doctor who has been volunteering for India Health Initative since last six years, termed working in the health camps as an experience to remember.

“This year was quite different from the camps held since last seven years. At Dehradun, we saw whole different population. People were great and appreciated the medical help,” he said.

“But at health camps held in Jahangirabad Institute of Technology, Barabanki, we saw many cases of active Tuberculosis, leprosy, anemia and cases of other water-borne diseases,” he added.

Earlier, free health camps were organised at Hyderabad and Barabanki, where 2,474 and 1,020 patients were treated respectively.

The India Health Initiative was started by IMRC in 2010. Since its inception, IMRC has successfully conducted seven ‘India Health Initiatives’ comprising of medical camps across different rural areas, poor localities and slums in India.

Every year, IMRC assembles a team of doctors from the United States of America to volunteer for the health camps. The medical camps are organized for three weeks in semi-slums and rural areas of different states to target poor patients. This year, nine US-based doctors with different specialties provided free medical services.