Muslim students raise £1m in just one week
Howard Lake | 28 November 2018 | News
Muslim students across the UK have raised over £1 million for Islamic Relief during Charity Week, the charity’s annual campaign with student Islamic societies. The record total was announced at the Charity Week International Annual Dinner that took place at Edgbaston Cricket Ground in Birmingham on 25 November.
Charity Week ran this year from 22 to 28 October. Muslim students took part by donating their time and goodwill to raise funds, including through events such as banana auctions and sumo wrestling.
Dr Wajid Akhter, formerly a volunteer for Islamic Relief, founded Charity Week. He said at the ceremony: “To raise over a million pounds in one week, whilst juggling studies, is an incredible achievement. The campaign epitomises unity and what can be achieved when we are united with the vision of helping those less fortunate than us to build a better, more hopeful world.”
All the money raised during Charity Week, goes towards supporting children’s projects run by Islamic Relief in the UK and around the world.
£1,012,533 raised
The total amount raised this year was £1,012,000.
Even more was raised by students in Canada, Qatar, Germany, USA, Australia and South Africa. Their £360,000 took the international total to £1.3 million.
Charity Week began as an annual volunteer-led campaign launched by a group of students in London back in 2003. Since then it has raised over £7 million.
Local community projects
In addition to fundraising during Charity Week, students, local business and volunteers got involved in projects to benefit local communities. For example, local councillors in Bradford joined Islamic Relief volunteers at a community litter pick in Seymour Park, making the park a cleaner and safer place for the community.
Charity Week also features activities in which students promote unity between different student Islamic societies and wider society.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.