Over the years, The Zahra Trust has invested in its innovative 470 premises between Najaf and Karbala, Iraq.
This facility is home to an array of multidimensional projects and initiatives to serve people in need across communities.
A decade ago, we embarked upon a journey to construct a large building with a village to home orphans and widows behind the building.
This ongoing project continues to expand, however the initiatives it has been constructed to achieve are well underway.
Site 470 is the home of The Zahra Trust’s Orphans and Widows village. An integral part of this project has been to house vulnerable families in a safe and fully equipped and furnished home within a village to provide them with quality housing within a community that is safe and protected.
As of 2022, the village now homes 20 vulnerable female-headed households with orphans. The Zahra Trust constructed homes and continues to expand its construction of homes to house more families.
The residents of the village also take part in our aid projects that are run at the 470 building and one of the many benefits of the community we have created is that the women and children who all have their own unique but difficult set of circumstances are able to depend on one another for advice and support.
The 470 building serves as a site of operation for The Zahra Trust’s Iraq team to store, pack and distribute aid. This includes putting together and distributing one month family food parcels, disbursing grants to families to ease their financial burdens, conducting health screenings mobile medical clinics and social and cultural events. In this way, the site acts as a centre-point for local communities to travel to in order to collect aid.
The provision of necessities is beneficial in the short-term, however developmental aid is key to ensuring that families are able to pave their own way forward out of the cycle of poverty for future
generations. It is for this reason that The Zahra Trust invests in livelihood programmes that bolster development including the provision of goods for trading, skills training and support with promotion.
The Zahra Trust has a host of activities available for the orphans and widows under its care as well as the wider community to provide opportunities for self-sufficiency. This includes, but is not limited to, tailoring and the provision of sewing machines, producing products and handicrafts for sale and vocational training and literacy.
The building also serves as a mowkeb during Arbaeen. As the zuwar undertake the walk from Najaf to Karbala, The Zahra Trust’s fully air conditioned mowkeb at pole 470 on the way provides a resting place and point of service to thousands of people. With hundreds of volunteers rallying to serve the zuwaar of Imam Hussain (as) each year, we are able to provide services to an estimated 100,000 zuwaar each year with hot meals, cold drinking water, hot drinks, majalis, showering and sleeping facilities, massage chairs, free Wi-Fi and the opportunity to purchase handicrafts created by the orphans and widows in our care.
The 470 building was made possible through your generosity and we are now able to provide immediate and sustainable support to thousands of people each year.
As the expansion continues and we continue to provide more, we aim to extend our services to include a youth facility, a medical facility and so much more. This is already underway and we are excited for what is to come in the years ahead with your continued support.
If you are travelling to Iraq and would like to visit or volunteer at the mowkeb
Please get in touch at: [email protected]
