Qatar Charity
Qatar Charity is a humanitarian and development non-governmental organization in the Middle East. It was founded in 1992 in response to the thousands of children who were made orphans by the Afghanistan war and while orphans still remain a priority cause in the organization's work with more than 150,000 sponsored orphans, it has now expanded its fields of action to include six humanitarian fields and seven development fields.
Between 2012 and 2017, Qatar Charity has spent over US$1.3 Billion on humanitarian and development operations and projects which provided relief and assistance to more than 178 million people in over 50 countries. These projects are carried out either directly by Qatar Charity through its 24 subsidiary offices around the world or through partnerships with international or local NGOs or IGOs.
Qatar Charity has been a strategic partner of UNCHR since 2012, with total contributions of USD 50,258,913 million for IDPs in Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, and Syria and refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, and Myanmar, reaching more than 1.6 million beneficiaries.
In some of the world's most conflict-affected countries such as Yemen and Syria, Qatar Charity ranked among the top contributors to humanitarian activities according to the OCHA-monitored Financial Tracking Service.
In September 2023, the UAE removed 59 Qatari nationals and 12 entities, including "Qatar Charity" from the terrorist list, that was announced by the blockading countries during the Gulf crisis in June 2017.
Management
, Qatar Charity is headed by its president, Hamad bin Nasser al-Thani, and its CEO, Yousef bin Ahmed al-Kuwari.Major projects
Among QC's major long-term projects are "Tayf," a charity program to collect in-kind donations, and the annual "Iftar" project for the month of Ramadan, which aims to provide meals to thousands of fasting Muslims in targeted countries. In July 2015, Vodafone Qatar and Qatar Charity created a partnership. Employees of Vodafone helped feed workers at camps in the Ras Laffan Industrial City with Iftar meals during Ramadan. Vodafone promised to donate $275 per hour that each employee volunteers. The donations will go to Qatar Charity's Family Sponsorship program. The program helps low-income families throughout the Gulf area. Recently, Qatar Charity has also launched a website to attract participation in charitable work.Qatar Charity is at the forefront of relief work in the face of major natural disasters. This was the case in Nepal, where Qatar Charity distributed $100.000 in food, blankets, mattresses and other non-food items including hygiene kits. In Sierra Leone, the charity supported the purchase of vital equipment at an Ebola Treatment Center in Lunsar. It also played a part in the 2008–2009 Gaza Strip aid delivering around $140,000 worth of medical supplies. In other international efforts, it had raised around QAR 2 million as relief for the 2010 Pakistan floods.
In Niger, Qatar Charity supported local efforts to combat drought and improve the overall desperate conditions in the villages of Sowna and Aichign by funding the installation of modern solar-powered artesian wells. In southern Mali, it opened shelters for displaced children. During 2014, Qatar Charity's long-standing commitment to the people of Somalia was renewed as the charity provided QAR 25.5 million in life-saving relief, recovery and rehabilitation programs and activities. QC launched a project to construct the village of 'Doha Alkhair' in Djibouti at an estimated cost of QAR 4 million in September 2015. One-hundred houses, basic amenities and public utilities were among the planned infrastructure.
QC sent relief convoys to refugees in South Sudan, and funded programs in support of Syrian refugees in Lebanon. As of October 2015, the organization had carried out four housing projects in Syria, during which it repaired and built new villages. The most notable housing project is Al Rayyan, an under-construction village designed to accommodate 7,000 people. QC also deployed around 400 pre-fabricated housing units in Syria.
The charity promotes engagement, employment and enterprise development for young people in the Arab world. One of the latest such efforts includes the renovation project of Al-Quds University at a cost of QAR 4.5 million.
In west Africa, the foundation began in November 2021, a collaboration with Nigeria’s northern state of Jigawa and Mallam Inuwa Foundation to provide solar-powered water plants, boreholes, hand-pumps, and mosques across the 27 Local Governments councils in the state.
On January 13, 2022, Qatar Charity signed a memorandum with the international blindness prevention organization, Orbis in support of the IAPB’s “2030 In Sight” initiative to promote global eye care and rehabilitation facilities are available to everyone who needs them, wherever they are in the world.
In Bulenga, in the Upper West Region, Qatar Charity launched a centralized borehole water project. The project, which started in November 2023, supplies water with climate-resilient solar panels and pumps.
In January 2024, Qatar made a significant contribution to Gaza's humanitarian aid by sending over 2,000 tonnes of essential equipment and goods in another shipment.
Partnerships and collaborations with UN agencies
1. OCHA Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs2011: MoU to establish a stand-by roster of specialized personnel and a team of technical specialists to field offices managed by OCHA
2017: MoU to allocate a $500,000 grant to support activities by OCHA in Syria
2. UNHCHR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
2013: MoU to allocate a $2 million grant to the UNHCR emergency response in Rakhine State, Myanmar
2017: MoU for a $5 million joint funding to support UNHCR programs in promoting protection and assistance to refugees and others persons falling under UNHCR mandate
MoU to allocate a $500,000 grant from QC to the UNHCR emergency support to internally displaced people in Yemen
MoU for a $300,000 funding from QC to the UNHCR's temporary shelter for the newly displaced in Mosul
MoU for a $200,000 funding from QC to the UNHCR's life saving referral healthcare for Syrian Refugees in Lebanon
MoU for a $500,000 funding from QC to the UNHCR's provision of shelter support to the internally displaced persons in Myanmar
MoU for a $955,167 funding from QC to the UNHCR's provision emergency shelters for Iraqi displaced persons
MoU for a $2,000,000 funding from QC to the UNHCR's operating budget of 2 community centers for the provision of protection services and assistance, the operating budget of two primary healthcare clinics, and the provision of street lighting infrastructure in Aleppo, Syria.
2018 : MoU for a $9,630,000 grant from QC to the UNHCR for the reintegration and livelihood support to the refugees, the IDPs, returnees and hosting communities in Somalia
MoU for a $2,387,304 grant provided by Qatar Fund For Development to the UNHCR for disaster risk reduction in Bangladesh
MoU for a $6,440,951 grant provided by QC to the UNHCR for disaster risk reduction and response and emergency support with basic needs and essential services for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
3. UNRWA UNRWA
2013: Support to the UNRWA Health Programme in Gaza through $1 million funding
4. WFP United Nations World Food Program
2015: MoU: Qatar Charity pledges to facilitate the official authorization of initiatives led by local companies and branches of multinationals operating in Qatar that seek to support WFP's food assistance programmes in the Middle East and around the world, including cash contributions and fundraising and advocacy campaigns and events
2017: MoU: Support to the humanitarian project in Syria "Food, Nutrition and Livelihood assistance to the People affected by the Crisis in Syria" through a $2 million funding from the Halab Labbeh fundraising campaign
5. UNICEF United Nations Children's Emergency Fund
2013: MoU: Framework for cooperation between QC and UNICEF to strengthen humanitarian prevention and response
2017: MoU: Enhance cooperation at Syrian humanitarian crisis level through a $2 million from the Halab Labbeh fundraising campaign funding and implementing of humanitarian projects
6. WHO World Health Organization
2017: MoU: Enhance cooperation at Syrian humanitarian crisis level through a $2 million funding from the Halab Labbeh fundraising campaign for the implementation of humanitarian projects