As much as we try to turn out the episodes as quickly as they they are recorded, every once and a while one or two slips through the cracks. This episode with Anwar Khan and Najah Bazzy is one of them. While the content was recorded last qurbani, it still rings true today. With that, we bring you one of the #LostEpisodes – B.C.
B.C. Dodge & R. Mordant Mahon talk to Anwar Khan, CEO of Islamic Relief USA and Najah Bazzy, Founder and President of Zaman International Hope for Humanity in this episode of “What a Relief!” — IRUSA’s official podcast.
This week B.C. & Mordant welcome Anwar Khan, CEO of Islamic Relief USA and Najah Bazzy, Founder and President of Zaman International Hope for Humanity.
The two represent organizations that are working to make the world a better place. In the first part of this awesome-packed episode, Anwar talks about Islamic Relief’s Qurbani program. With Eid just around the corner, this is a must-listen for Muslims who want to follow this important Islamic tradition.
Anwar talks about the impact of sending meat to poor families. “It’s a way I can tell how poor a child is, by when they last had meat,” he says. He shares touching stories from the field of his personal interactions with families who experience joy due to Islamic Relief’s annual Qurbani distribution.
“At the center of it all is hope,” he says. “It’s all love.”
In the second part of the episode, Najah shares the background of how her organization started, which centers around a heartwarming story. In her virtual sit-down with Carl and Mordant, she sheds light on the vital work her organization does. Zaman International Hope for Humanity has a mission of facilitating change and advancing the lives of marginalized women and children by enabling them to meet essential needs common to all humankind. Like Islamic Relief USA, they provide food, clothing, shelter and vocational training.
“Poverty is so big,” she says. “It’s a systemic issue. Homelessness is becoming the systemic issue in the United States. One in every five children is hungry. The way I have to think about this big system’s problem is that early in my nursing career I did open heart surgery, and in open heart surgery you bypass the clogged artery in order to get healthy blood flow so that the person’s heart can sustain itself. That’s how I see this work. The women we take care of from female headed households living on under $12,000 a year are the heart and soul and breath of their family. We have to keep her standing. And so the way to do that is to bypass the poverty by stunting the artery of hunger.”
In this special podcast, Anwer and Najah open listeners’ eyes to what serving humanity really looks like. “I don’t even take a salary,” Najah says. “I am so committed to the service of humanity. I left six figures in order to serve at Zaman.”
Tune in to learn about these two organizations’ important work unlocking poverty, and how you can be a part of it.
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