SINGAPORE, May 1, 2022 – Bitsmedia, the Singapore-based tech company behind the world’s largest Muslim lifestyle app Muslim Pro, signed a one-year partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund’s (UNICEF) to activate fundraising activities for the organization’s programmes, which has been delivering critical supplies and services to save and protect lives around the world. The first fundraising campaign has been launched this Ramadan, focusing on humanitarian action for children in Yemen, Syria, and Afghanistan.
The Muslim Pro app is calling upon its users to donate to UNICEF and raise emergency funds for children affected by conflict. During the Ramadan fundraiser, its global users will be encouraged to support the life-saving work of UNICEF.
In conflict and disaster, children suffer most. During a humanitarian emergency, children are especially vulnerable to disease, malnutrition, and violence. Children living in conflict areas are worse off – they are more likely to be living in extreme poverty, for instance, or their education disrupted.
The chaos and insecurity of war threatens or destroys access to food, shelter, social support and health care, and results in increased vulnerability in communities, especially for children. UNICEF focuses on these children and their families to provide them with the essential interventions required for protection, to save lives and to ensure the rights of all children, everywhere.
Speaking about the campaign, Fara Abdullah, Co-CEO at Bitsmedia said: “There are millions of children in Yemen, Syria, and Afghanistan who are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. As a global Muslim brand that serves Muslim communities across the world, it is important for Muslim Pro to step up and drive tangible impact for the children in these societies.”
Two decades into the conflict, and considering recent political and socioeconomic developments, the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated significantly. Essential services are on the brink of collapse, and around 12.9 million children across Afghanistan need humanitarian assistance to survive.
UNICEF’s Afghanistan Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) appeal is the largest in the history of the organization.
In Yemen, seven years into the conflict, 20.7 million people – including 11.3 million children – need urgent humanitarian assistance. The damage and closure of schools and hospitals has disrupted access to education and health services, leaving children even more vulnerable, robbing them of their future. Nearly four million people have been internally displaced, half of them being children, making Yemen the fourth largest internally displaced population globally.
As well as supporting the immediate emergency needs of children, whose access to food and water is severely limited, the UNICEF appeal aims to look at the long-term developments of Yemen and Afghanistan and the future of children in both countries.
“We look forward to our continued efforts with UNICEF and encourage the global community to help out the less fortunate in any way they can,” Fara added.
The campaign signifies Muslim Pro’s continued collaboration with UNICEF as a part of UNICEF’s Ramadan campaign. Last Ramadan, with the support through Muslim Pro’s crowdfunding efforts and donors across the globe, UNICEF was able to provide life-saving services to vulnerable families and children in remote conflict areas in Yemen and Afghanistan. These services include:
- Emergency water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services
- Essential health services through mobile health teams or clinics
- Immediate and lifesaving services to children including humanitarian cash assistance, transportation and referrals to medical and other services
- Provision of ready-to-use therapeutic food for malnourished children
- Facilitating access to unvaccinated children for polio vaccination
Nik Emir Din, Co-CEO at Bitsmedia said: “We are pleased to see that our app continues to be of great support and aid to Muslims all over the world as our features help bridge physical distances in the practice of our faith.”
Muslim Pro users can donate to UNICEF throughout Ramadan until the end of April via an in-app link at (https://bit.ly/3JdwAbf) to support the emergency response in Yemen, Syria, and Afghanistan.
