How Yahya Foundation Started…

Hi! My name is Ilham, I am a mother of two from North London. I was born in Kenya but came to the UK when I got married over 27 years ago. Since the war in Yemen started in 2015, my husband and I really wanted to help people living in poverty there, but we didn't know how to begin.

One day, our friend Majibur Rehman Choudary invited us to a fundraising event for Nessa Foundation. He started Nessa Foundation in Bangladesh to build an orphanage, which alhamdulillah has steadily grown over the years, alongside raising funds for charitable projects worldwide. Sitting at that event and seeing how just a few ordinary people with ambition and drive can make a difference gave my husband and me the push to start Yahya Foundation.

With his guidance, we began our journey. We found orphans in Yemen who needed support and sponsored them by providing their guardians with money for living expenses. Our family member Hani Uqba, who lives in Yemen, volunteered to help by visiting the households regularly and reporting back on the children's progress.

We contacted family and friends to share what we wanted to do, and through their support and donations we secured the funds to sustain 4 children for the year (now, two years on, we are sponsoring 6 children and hoping to increase that by another two this year).

Since then, the momentum has continued and support has come from all over the world. We have worked on several different projects — like providing water tanks in Kenya and distributing family food parcels in Yemen — which I will blog about in posts to come.

Inshallah, our goal — with your support and prayers — is to continue helping as many people in need as possible, whenever we can, as directly as possible.