The Big Heart Foundation calls for support for communities in Ramadan

The Big Heart Foundation calls for support for communities in Ramadan
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The UAE’s non-profit, The Big Heart Foundation, is launching a Zakat Appeal campaign under the slogan, “Enlighten their Future”, to merge community’s support through charitable donations throughout Ramadan. (WAM)
The Big Heart Foundation calls for support for communities in Ramadan
2 / 2
The UAE’s non-profit, The Big Heart Foundation, is launching a Zakat Appeal campaign under the slogan, “Enlighten their Future”, to merge community’s support through charitable donations throughout Ramadan. (WAM)
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Updated 28 March 2023

The Big Heart Foundation calls for support for communities in Ramadan

The Big Heart Foundation calls for support for communities in Ramadan
  • Appeal campaign launched to help the needy through charitable donations
  • Director says the impact will be massive as the populations are in dire need

SHARJAH, UAE: The Big Heart Foundation has launched its “Enlighten their Future” campaign, a zakat appeal to help communities through charitable donations in Ramadan.
The UAE’s organization, which serves millions of refugees, is consolidating its efforts to extend both emergency response and developmental support to under-resourced communities across several countries, the Emirates News Agency reported on Tuesday.
TBHF, which has been helping internally displaced people as well as refugees and others in need for more than a decade, will use the funds raised to support sustainable long-term development and humanitarian projects in the vital sectors of education and specialized health care in underprivileged communities.
Contributions will also help provide aid to the victims of the earthquake and natural disasters in Syria and Turkiye, support scientific and health centers, and help institutions restore their ability to provide services to people in both countries.
Mariam Al-Hammadi, TBHF director, said the impact of supporting donors in the UAE and beyond would be massive, as the populations to be helped are now more than ever in dire need of emergency response, shelter, security, education, and other long-term developmental assistance.
The slogan of the foundation’s campaign, “Enlighten their Future,” represents immediate and lifesaving aid to victims of crisis, and support in building futures in order to bring about sustainable development in under-resourced communities.
Al-Hammadi said the lives of millions of people in many communities worldwide depended on humanitarian missions, which can only be possible and successful with the benevolence and support of others.
She added: “Contributions this Ramadan will improve educational opportunities, give families who have lost everything after the recent earthquake a chance to rebuild their lives, and take quality health care to remote locations.”
TBHF has called on people in the UAE, charitable individuals worldwide, private sector businesses, government entities, civil society organizations, and charities to respond to its appeal with contributions.
Al-Hammadi added: “With our zakat appeal this year, we are fostering hope for a better tomorrow, not only for refugees and vulnerable people, but for all of us.”


Children evacuated from orphanage where dozens died in Sudan’s capital

Children evacuated from orphanage where dozens died in Sudan’s capital
Updated 08 June 2023

Children evacuated from orphanage where dozens died in Sudan’s capital

Children evacuated from orphanage where dozens died in Sudan’s capital
  • ICRC said the children aged between 1 and 15 had been taken to a safer location in Wad Madani, about 200 kilometres southeast of Khartoum
  • An ICRC spokesperson said the number of evacuated children had risen to 300 by Thursday morning

CAIRO: About 300 children have been evacuated from an orphanage in Sudan’s capital Khartoum where dozens of orphans were found last month to have died since mid-April due to nearby fighting between rival military factions.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which facilitated the evacuation late on Wednesday, said the children aged between 1 and 15 had been taken to a safer location in Wad Madani, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) southeast of Khartoum.
The ICRC said in its initial statement that 280 children and 70 caretakers had been evacuated, and an ICRC spokesperson said the number of evacuated children had risen to 300 by Thursday morning.
That number was confirmed by Siddig Frini, general manager at the Khartoum state ministry of social development, which oversees care centers.
The evacuation offered “a ray of light in the midst of the ongoing conflict in Sudan,” said Mandeep O’Brien, the representative in Sudan for UN children’s agency UNICEF.
On May 29, Reuters reported that at least 50 children had died – dozens of them babies – at the state-run orphanage, known as Mygoma, since the start of the conflict in Khartoum on April 15.
An orphanage official and doctor who works there said the deaths were mainly caused by malnourishment, dehydration and infections as most staff were kept away by the fighting.
Hadhreen, a volunteer group that has been helping at the orphanage, said on Wednesday it had confirmed the deaths of 71 children at the orphanage since the conflict started.
No official death toll has been issued. The orphanage was home to about 400 young children before the conflict began.
Frini declined to provide figures on the death toll. The director of the orphanage and the health ministry couldn’t immediately be reached.
“Many millions of children remain at risk across Sudan,” UNICEF’s O’Brien said in a statement. “Their lives and their futures are being endangered by this conflict every day.”


Tunisia army helicopter missing: defense ministry

Tunisia army helicopter missing: defense ministry
Updated 08 June 2023

Tunisia army helicopter missing: defense ministry

Tunisia army helicopter missing: defense ministry
  • The Tunisian military has lost a number of aircraft on training or reconnaissance missions in recent years

Tunis: A Tunisian army helicopter with four people on board is missing and feared crashed hours after vanishing from radar screens, the defense ministry said on Thursday.
The ministry has learnt that “communications have been lost with a helicopter which was making a night flight in the Cape Serrat area yesterday (Wednesday) evening,” it said in a statement.
“Land, sea and air resources have been mobilized in coordination with the interior ministry to carry out searches to locate the aircraft and establish the fate of its crew of four.”
The Tunisian military has lost a number of aircraft on training or reconnaissance missions in recent years.
In October 2021, three soldiers were killed when an army helicopter crashed during a night exercise in the southern province of Gabes.
The findings of an official investigation into that accident have still not been released.


Fighting rages at Sudan military site facility

Fighting rages at Sudan military site facility
Updated 08 June 2023

Fighting rages at Sudan military site facility

Fighting rages at Sudan military site facility
  • Sudan has been embroiled in a deadly conflict since mid-April, when fighting erupted between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo

KHARTOUM: Sudanese army soldiers and paramilitaries fought for control of a military facility Thursday in Khartoum where a fire raged at an oil and gas facility, witnesses said.
The battles came a day after the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced in a statement they had wrestled “full control” of the Yarmouk weapons manufacturing and arms depot complex.
Witnesses from southern Khartoum said they heard the “sound of gunfire and clashes” around the complex, the most important military industrial facility in the country.
The RSF claimed that soldiers had fled the site, leaving behind large quantities of military equipment and vehicles.
The paramilitaries also posted videos online purportedly showing their fighters inside the facility, celebrating. Weapons, including machine guns, and large quantities of ammunition could be seen in the background.
Sudan has been embroiled in a deadly conflict since mid-April, when fighting erupted between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo — commonly known as Hemeti — who commands the RSF.
Violence has spread across the country, most notably in the western region of Darfur, which is home to around a quarter of Sudan’s population and has never recovered from a devastating two-decade war that left hundreds of thousands dead and more than two million displaced.
The fire at the Al-SHajjara oil and gas facility near Yarmouk broke out overnight Wednesday to Thursday, witnesses said.
It was not immediately clear what started the fire but residents said they heard a loud explosion at the facility, where fierce fighting has been underway for the past couple of days.
Plumes of smoke still rose from the site on Thursday morning and could be seen from as far as 10 kilometers away.
Since fighting broke out in Sudan on April 15, more than 1,800 people have been killed, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.
Nearly two million people have been displaced by the conflict, according to the latest UN figures, including 476,000 who have sought refuge in neighboring countries.
Talks mediated by Saudi Arabia and the United States broke down, and multiple cease-fires have failed to take hold.
Last week, Washington slapped sanctions on the warring generals accusing both sides for the “appalling bloodshed” after the latest truce collapsed and the army pulled out of cease-fire talks altogether.
In October 2012, Sudan accused Israel of being behind a blast at the Yarmouk facility, leading to speculation that Iranian weapons were stored or manufactured there.
Israel at that time refused to comment on Sudan’s accusation.


Blinken: US to give $150m in aid for Syria, Iraq at Saudi conference on combating Daesh group

Blinken: US to give $150m in aid for Syria, Iraq at Saudi conference on combating Daesh group
Updated 08 June 2023

Blinken: US to give $150m in aid for Syria, Iraq at Saudi conference on combating Daesh group

Blinken: US to give $150m in aid for Syria, Iraq at Saudi conference on combating Daesh group
  • Secretary of State says US pledge is part of new funding amounting to more than $600 million

DUBAI: Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that the US would provide nearly $150 million in aid for areas in Syria and Iraq that were liberated from the Daesh extremist group.
He spoke at a ministerial conference hosted by Saudi Arabia on combating the group, which no longer controls any territory — but whose affiliates still carry out attacks across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
The Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh includes more than 80 countries and continues to coordinate action against the extremist group, which at its height controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq. Blinken said the US pledge is part of new funding amounting to more than $600 million.
“Poor security and humanitarian conditions. Lack of economic opportunity. These are the fuel for the kind of desperation on which Daesh feeds and recruits,” he said, using a common acronym for the extremist group. “So we have to stay committed to our stabilization goals.”
Blinken co-hosted the conference as part of a two-day visit to the Kingdom in which he met with senior Saudi officials, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Blinken also attended a meeting of Gulf foreign ministers.
The Saudis have launched wide-ranging diplomatic efforts to wind down their war in Yemen, resolve a crisis with Qatar, restore relations with archrival Iran and welcome Syria’s President Bashar Assad back into the Arab League after a 12-year boycott.


Iran’s president to visit three Latin American countries next week

Iran’s president to visit three Latin American countries next week
Updated 08 June 2023

Iran’s president to visit three Latin American countries next week

Iran’s president to visit three Latin American countries next week
  • The state news agency said Raisi will leave Tehran on June 11

MEXICO CITY: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will visit Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela next week, Iran’s state news agency IRNA announced on Wednesday, adding that the upcoming tour stemmed from invites from the presidents of each of the Latin American nations.
IRNA said documents to expand bilateral cooperation will be signed between Iran and the three countries during Raisi’s visit, mentioning economic, political and scientific issues, but without going into further detail.
The state news agency said Raisi will leave Tehran on June 11.
The three-country tour will give Raisi face time with three regional allies, each of whom lead leftists governments that have been accused by critics of human rights violations.
Iran and Venezuela are both members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

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