This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Islamic Relief Worldwide is an international humanitarian and development charity founded in Birmingham, England, in 1984 by medical student Hany El-Banna and fellow young Muslim volunteers, in response to famine in East Africa, after raising an initial 135,000 pounds through mosque collections held across the city. Its first year funded three projects, two chicken farms and a shipment of biscuits and vitamins in Sudan and a shipment of wheat flour to Mauritania, and the founders hired their first office in a Birmingham community centre in 1985, registering with the Charity Commission of England and Wales in 1989.
Islamic Relief Worldwide is the umbrella body over a federation of national affiliates, including Islamic Relief USA, UK and Canada, working across emergency relief, healthcare, water and sanitation, education and orphan sponsorship on an Islamic basis of charitable giving, including zakat and qurbani programmes. Hany El-Banna served as its first president; the charity is led today by CEO Iftikhar Shaheen and Chair of Trustees Haroun Atallah, decades after those first mosque collections funded three small projects.