Dear brothers and sisters, As Salamu ‘alaikum, wa rahmatuLlahi, wa barakatuH.

- 3 million refugees displaced
- 80% are women & children
- They’re hungry, cold, sick, and needy.
- DO Something!

Due to the overwhelming positive response that we’ve received online, from Australia, to California, to the UK, and the UAE, we’ve consulted with our team, and have decided to call off the upcoming relief event at Pearl Banquet Hall in Toronto on Saturday, June 27th. We’re going to aim a little higher.

We want to raise no less than $1 Million for our displaced and desperate brothers and sisters in Swat. We obviously can’t do this without your active support, promotion, involvement, and help.

The process is very simple.

I want 1,000 people to make a simple commitment:
1. Donate at least $20
2. Find 20 others to do the same.
3. Have them find only 2 others to donate the same amount. (keep track of your lists!)

Think family, coworkers, annoying siblings, cousins, classmates, teachers, Imams, friends, rich uncles, rich aunties, your local MSA, Jum’ah collections, halaqas, book clubs, zikr gatherings,.. everyone.

When we do this, and do it right, we’ll be at $800K by the end of the process. I will solicit the donations of some major donors to cover the remaining balance, insha’Allah. But we need to demonstrate some serious grassroots willingness towards this end, to encourage big donors to follow through.

(Our partner in getting these funds to the needy in Swat, is Edhi Foundation’s Canadian chapter. Their long-standing track record of non-sectarian, non-partisan, and transparent relief work across Pakistan, along with their integrity and credibility makes them an obvious choice.)

The deadline for this, is the 1st of Ramadan – Saturday August 22nd, 2009. Imagine entering Ramadan by giving $1 Million in sadaqah!

I invite you to step up to the challenge. When you do, all such challenges are easily surmountable, insha’Allah.

We will be migrating our online fund collection mechanism from Eventbrite to a service provider that is not event-based. I will update you all on that shortly. For now, your donations can still be received at http://swatrelief.eventbrite.com. (We encourage you to keep the donations online, as this will help us keep transparent records of all transfers and transactions.)

Thank you all for your support, and I look forward to more of it.

was Salam

Nader Khan
Programs Director
ReliefWorks

+1.416.294.0640
nader@relief-works.com

Messages of Support:
- Imam Tahir Anwar: http://tiny.cc/XyXRT
- Imam Afroz Ali: http://tiny.cc/kXpHG
- Imam Zaid Shakir: http://tiny.cc/iyRa9

Suggested readings on Edhi Foundation:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edhi_Foundation
- http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200406/humanitarian.to.a.nation.htm