MAKE A DIFFERENCE WITH OUR 100% ZAKAT POLICY
With our 100% Zakat policy, every single penny raised through Zakatable donation will go directly to the Zakatable projects 100% of the time to help thousands of children in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Somalia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
DOUBLE YOUR DONATION:
Every £1 donated will be matched by our corporate partner, Texel Foundation, so your donation this Ramadan will go further with Street Child.
Choose where to donate your zakat:
ZAKATABLE PROJECTS
We will ensure that your Zakat goes to where the need is greatest. Your Zakat serves humanity and will go towards life-saving education to humanitarian and sustainable assistance around the world in the world’s toughest places, including remote, hard- to-reach areas and fragile, disaster-affected states.
When you give your Zakat, you do more than just help someone. You give comfort and hope to children struggling to be safe, in school and learning. This year do not just fulfil your obligation: fulfil the potential of your Zakat with Street Child.
From life-saving education to humanitarian catastrophe, refugee crisis, shelter, food, and skills training - we will deliver 100% of your Zakat to where most needed.
For over 14 years, we have been delivering life-saving education to humanitarian and sustainable assistance around the world in the world’s toughest places where others won’t, including remote, hard- to-reach areas and fragile, disaster-affected states.
24 million Afghans are now on the brink of starvation with rising rates of malnutrition in children.
Over 80% of the population live under the poverty line. Without basic essentials, the lives and access to education for many children, especially girls, is at risk. Your gift will help us to support children and families in Afghanistan, ensuring as many as possible are able to remain safe, in school and learning.
In the face of one of the worst humanitarian crisis on Earth we urgently need your support in order to help scale up our humanitarian response and help protect thousands more Afghan children.
Since October 2016, nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees have fled political persecution in Rakhine State, Myanmar into neighbouring Bangladesh. Of the 900,000 refugee arrivals in the camps in Cox’s Bazar over the last few years, 500,000 [55%] are children under the age of 17. With insufficient access to basic support and services, just 47% of children and a mere 3% of adolescents living in these camps have access to education.
Our support will increase the number of actors able to respond to educational needs in emergencies; and offer a proven partnership model in humanitarian emergencies that catalyses a shift towards scaling locally-led, self-sufficient and sustainable responses.
The monsoon season of 2022 has produced significant rainfall, devastating floods, and landslides. This has affected an estimated 33 million people across the country. Even today, several months after the worst of the flooding, an estimated 5 million people remained exposed to or living close to flooded areas.
According to the Pakistan Education Sector Working Group, the large-scale destruction of school facilities has interrupted the education of 3.5 million children. Data shows that by October 20th 2022, floods had damaged or destroyed 26,632 schools in the country.
Somalia is one of the poorest countries in the world, with an estimated 81% of its seventeen million population living on less than $1.90 a day with over 5.2 million people in need of humanitarian assistance as a result of conflict and famine. Since the collapse of the education system, communities have taken different approaches to establishing locally run education services. People whose struggle for education has always been difficult, girls and women, disabled people and displaced people, fare worst in times of uncertainty and extreme poverty.
Four consecutive failed rainy seasons, droughts, insecurity, the ripple effects of the war in Ukraine, the climate crisis and the pandemic's economic fallout have all created the direst of conditions in Somalia. The country is now bracing for a sixth consecutive failed rainy season, which was forecasting for December 2022.
The affected population in North East Nigeria have been living in a protracted crisis for over a decade, resulting in widespread forced displacement and continued violations of human rights.
Outside of the crisis in the North East, education indicators remain low with over 18 million children currently out of school nationally and only 66% of primary school teachers trained to teach.
Our current programmes in North East Nigeria comprise of working in 15 Local Government Areas across Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa states. Since 2016, Street Child of Nigeria has reached over 120,000 children with education and child protection programming.
When Street Child’s work began in Sierra Leone in 2008, it was the poorest nation in the world. Today, children continue to face significant barriers to learning, with 36% of children never completing primary school and many more leaving school without foundational literacy and numeracy skills.
88% of out of school children in Sierra Leone live in rural areas, where 3 in 4 rural adults are illiterate. Without intervention, children risk getting stuck in a cycle of illiteracy and poverty including loss of a caregiver, teenage pregnancy, parental attitudes to education, and poor teaching quality.
Two consecutive earthquakes have devastated parts of southern Turkey and northern Syria, causing unimaginable hardships for families already affected by years of war. 3.7 million children are experiencing extreme exposure to danger, displacement, and distress due to the current crisis in Syria.
Street Child is one of the only international children’s charities actively responding in the area, providing life-saving relief to children and their families.
Our trusted local partners on-the-ground in Syria are urgently providing life-saving support of food, medicine, and shelter to children and families affected by this heart-breaking event. These organisations are most effective at having the biggest impact for children and families who are in need of immediate support.
The Arabic word ‘Zakat’ means ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’ and by fulfilling this religious duty, Muslims regard it as purifying your wealth.
Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam and is a central component of a Muslim’s faith. Zakat is an obligatory charitable payment upon every adult Muslim based on total wealth – cash, gold, silver, shares. Zakat is paid by Muslims on a yearly basis, whose wealth reaches a certain threshold known as the Nisab for one year, based on lunar calendar year.
Zakat donation amount is 2.5% of a Muslim’s total wealth (based on income and the value of assets).
If the total assets equate to £10,000, the Zakat will equate to £250. If just the ten richest people in the world paid Zakat – that would equate to a staggering £7.7 billion to tackle poverty around the world!
Nisab is the minimum amount of wealth a Muslim must possess before they become eligible to pay Zakat.
There are two Nisab values from which the threshold is determined.
Gold: the monetary value of 87.48 grams = £4,513.30
Silver: the monetary value of 612.36 grams = £354.56
If the individual doesn’t reach the Nisab, then it is not obligatory for the individual to pay Zakat. If the individual’s wealth is above the Nisab threshold, then it is obligatory to pay 2.5% on all wealth as Zakat to any of categories mentioned in the Quran.
Nisab threshold tend to vary due to the fluctuation of gold and silver.
There are 8 categories of people that are entitled to receive Zakat. They are:
The poor
The needy
Zakat collectors / administrators
Those whose hearts have been recently reconciled
Those who have been enslaved
Those in debt
Travellers (including refugees)
In the cause of God
In order to receive Zakat, the recipients must be poor or needy.
A poor person is someone who cannot afford basic requirements and does not reach the Nisab threshold.
The recipient must not belong to your immediate family i.e. your spouse, children, parents and grandparents – they cannot receive your zakat.
Other relatives on the other hand can receive your Zakat.
The recipient cannot be anyone above the Nisab threshold – for example, a teacher above the Nisab threshold cannot receive Zakat for training and development purpose.
Zakat must be paid on an annual basis. The Zakat anniversary is the date in which the individual first owned wealth above the Nisab threshold. If an individual is unsure, they can estimate. In reality, most Muslims will generally pay Zakat during Ramadan as it’s a good reminder, people are spiritually high and keen to make an impact.
Street Child currently operates in over 22 countries including several projects being delivered within predominantly Muslim-majority countries. As a result, we have undertaken a major consultation process and developed a fit for purpose Zakat Policy to maximise programmatic impact, whilst fulfilling and administering Zakat payments.
Street Child are committed to making a long-term impact through Zakat and therefore invested heavily on Zakatable process through appointment of a senior fundraising advisor that led on global Zakatable campaigns with first-hand experience of working with British Muslims and Islamic experts.
We also went through comprehensive research to understand Zakat, its criteria, eligibility and processing of donations to maximise impact in line with Zakat guidelines.
Street Child went through an in-depth consultation process with Islamic experts who specialise on Zakat and also worked closely with a dedicated Zakat expert to create a fit for purpose Zakat policy with a selection of relevant zakatable projects, countries and implementation.
100% of Zakatable donation made to Street Child are automatically allocated to a restricted Zakat fund dedicated to Zakatable projects.
100% Zakat policy means, we allocate 100% of the zakatable donation to zakatable projects ONLY and will not be used to cover any admin cost.
Street Child’s selection of Zakatable projects is in Muslim countries – they are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, northeast Nigeria, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Syria and Gaza.
100% of Zakat means every single penny raised through zakatable donation will go directly to the zakatable projects 100% of the time to help thousands of people around the world.
We take Zakat very seriously and work collaboratively with our Zakat specialist and Muslim scholar to ensure 100% of Zakat is 100% compliant.
All Zakatable projects have been carefully selected within Muslim or Muslim majority communities across the world.
Donors can select their Zakat payment towards their preferred zakatable projects in line with our zakatable administration process as follows.
Street Child will ensure all relevant donation platforms will feature Zakat donation option by project and country.
Upon receiving a zakat donation, receipts will be sent automatically, clearly indicating the 100% zakatable donation along with the project selected by the donor.
Street Child has a dedicated, interest free bank account for Zakat where funds are held until being sent to the relevant zakatable projects for implementation.
Gift Aid can be claimed on Zakat payments. UK taxpayers can claim Gift Aid, which will be reclaimed by Street Child and treated as a general fund to support our work.
Street Child’s established and dedicated projects and years of experience will ensure Zakat go towards:
Life-changing education and humanitarian assistance.
Responding to refugee crisis, providing immediate surge support and capacity strengthening support.
Providing vital mental health and psychosocial support for vulnerable refugee children and adolescents.
Providing support to primary and secondary schools to rehabilitate classrooms, improve disability access, provide separate hygiene facilities for girls, teacher training and development.
‘Learning for Livelihoods’ programme providing training in literacy, numeracy and vocational skills to vulnerable female-headed households.
Street Child country programme and partner staff will regularly monitor our project delivery to ensure compliance with the Zakat policy.
Implementation of ALL Zakatable projects will be in line with the 8 categories of people that are entitled to receive Zakat.
Expenditure of ALL Zakatable donations will be in line with our Zakatable projects - approved by our Zakat Advisor (Asim Khan) and our Director of Central Fundraising (Zac Hussain).
If you have any questions, queries or feedback about Street Child’s Zakat Policy, you can get in touch with us at myzakatquery@street-child.org.
Street Child has appointed Zac Hussain as its Director of Central Fundraising to lead on all Zakatable campaigns within the organisation.
Zac Hussain was the former Director at Muslim Aid and comes with a wealth of experience in leading Zakatable campaigns. Zac has also worked with a consortium of prominent Muslim NGO’s, British Muslim communities as well as Islamic experts to develop and implement a fit for purpose Zakat Guidelines.
Street Child has also been working very closely with Shaykh Asim Khan, and his pool of Zakat expertise within his remit to help oversee the implementation of our Zakat policy.
Shaykh Asim Khan
Shaykh Asim is a published author of 3 books, including the Simple Seerah & the best-selling “The Heart of the Qur’an”, a commentary on Surah Yasin. He is a Hafiz of Qur’an, has gained a Masters in Pharmacy from the University College London UK, and studied Arabic and Quranic Sciences in Cairo, Egypt. His true passion lies in Tafsir studies where you can find numerous online lectures of his on Qur'ān related topics. He has served as Lead Imam for over a decade at the Redbridge Islamic Centre in London.
Shaykh Asim has worked with a number of International Muslim charities in assisting with advice and guidance including Zakat and Sadaqah queries and continues to advise various charities on Zakat related matters.
Street Child will commit to reviewing its Zakat Policy on an annual basis to ensure practical implementation.