Ramadan - make this month your time for change!

Whatever inspires you this month, you can make real changes in real people's lives. Whether you give, campaign or pray, thank you for working with us to change the world for the better.

During the month of Ramadan while we are alhamdullilah enjoying the barakah and blessings of this holy month, nearly 1 million children and over half a million adults around the world will die of malnutrition and disease. In fact, they will die of poverty.

I was born and brought-up in some of the most deprived areas of Pakistan and have seen the effects of poverty. I have now been involved for 15 years in efforts to provide aid to overcome hardship and poverty in many countries around the world. I can tell you how conflicts push people further deep into poverty.

The problem of poverty can sometimes seem vast and yet progress is being made. More people have escaped poverty in the last fifty years than in the previous five hundred. Alhamdullilah, Islamic Aid, our supporters and volunteers are part of this great effort to lift people out of poverty.

But, all over the world, thousands of children are still dying from preventable diseases, many of them caused simply by drinking dirty water. And yet, £150 could supply clean drinking water to a family and £1,200 to an entire community. Such small investments bring other benefits too particularly to the women and children who spend hours and walk miles everyday to collect their water supplies. They will certainly have more time and energy for other work or be free to attend school.

It need not always be this way. It need not cost much to give a poor family the help they need to start to work their way out of poverty. Let me show you the difference Islamic Aid has made to just one poor family and this is a positive story repeated many times around the world.