INTRODUCTION
Libyan Relief Fund (LRF) is a humanitarian endeavor that was established in 1991 as part of the charitable work undertaken by Hope International Development and Relief Agency. Its aim was and still is to address the problems of Libyans in need of financial and medical aid. It may be surprising to many to know that Libyans being citizens of an oil-rich country would ever be in dire need for help. However, this is the reality for a great number of Libyans who have been experiencing economic and social deprivation during the last two decades and continue to suffer at present under the same conditions. In order to have some appreciation of such, we have included below some excerpts of an EIU report that was issued in April 1991.
The LRF provides aid to needy families and individuals, refugees, and orphaned children and widows. Funding is used to provide the minimum required to sustain life at minimum. This includes food, medicine and hospitalization, education, and shelter that may require moving refugee families from one place to another where life is more affordable and hospitable. Assistance to such families also includes advice on immigration laws and residency requirements.
OBJECTIVES AND PROGRAMS
The LRF strives to foster compassion and caring amongst the Libyan community and aspires to revive and strengthen the spirit of unity and takaful as mandated by Islam. Programs initiated by the LRF includes emergency financial aid, family and orphan sponsorship, Ramadhan Iftar and Eid Udhiya, distribution of Zakah (obligatory annual Zakah and that of Eid-ul-Fitr).
ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO DATE
The LRF has been able to:
- Provide emergency financial aid to more than 1000 families including no less than 3,500 individuals. Aid comprised food, medicine, and accommodation
- Distribute Eid gifts and clothing to disadvantaged children or poor or widowed families
- Distribute Zakah, Ramadhan Iftar, and Eid Udhiya to more than 2000 families
- Provide emergency medical assistance to cover hospitalization costs and medical equipment to 7 persons
OUR HOPE
Through your generosity we hope we will be able to do more for needy Libyans so that their lives become more bearable and sustainable. Like anyone else, Libyans retain their dignity as they come to know that their fellow Libyans and Muslims at large care for them and are willing to extend a helping hand whenever needed.
Past Campaigns
In addition to our continuing effort to ease the hardships of Libyans, especially those whom circumstance forced to leave home, HOPE invites all Libyans who have some means to extend a helping hand to a brother hospitalized with cancer and a sister who is mother to five children and in urgent need to have her heart pacer replaced. We have established two separate internal accounts within the LRF for each. May Allah Almighty reward you plentifully in this life and in the Hereafter.
EXCERPTS FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT REPORT*
PROSPECTS
Libya ranks only slightly higher than the poorest nations on earth for education, life expectancy, diet and health. It is below OPEC norms and well behind OPEC countries. In some areas of welfare which touches the lives of all ordinary people, Libya is no better off than Egypt and worse off than Tunisia. On present evidence, the gap between Libya and the developed world will widen
DEVALUED EDUCATION
A small but effective educational system was reduced to chaos and indiscipline. The university, a promising adventure in quality teaching at an internationally acceptable level before the (1969) coup, was mauled and devalued until its standards were little higher than secondary schools.
WATER RESOURCES
In the first decade of the next century it is possible Libya will begin to run out of water.
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* EIU Prospects Series, Special Report No. 2134, Libya in the 1990s _ Can Its Resources be salvaged?_ Natasha Beschomer and Andrew Smith, April 1991.
Each container was valued at between $150,000 to $200,000 (donated supplies).
