Zakat Foundation of America Response to Crisis
BRIDGEVIEW, IL, UNITED STATES, June 19, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- As the world observes World Refugee Day, Zakat Foundation of America is calling attention to the staggering human cost of forced
displacement and reaffirming its commitment to empowering refugees with dignity, education, and self-reliance across 14 countries.According to UNHCR's Mid-Year Trends 2025 report, 117.3 million people are currently forcibly displaced worldwide; that's 1 in every 67 people on Earth. UNHCR projects that number will reach 136 million by the end of 2026.
A Record of Impact: 324,935 Lives Reached
From 2022 to 2025, Zakat Foundation of America’s refugee empowerment and humanitarian programs reached a total of 324,935 individuals across its global initiatives. U.S.-based programs alone served 84,763 beneficiaries, including:
Rohingya Cultural Center (RCC), Chicago — 49,836 individuals served through case management, job placement, health services, food distribution, youth programs, and childcare support
Afghan Cultural Center Inc. (ACCI), Chicago — 4,577 beneficiaries reached through educational workshops, job fairs, legal aid, and cultural programming
Job Placement & Training (in partnership with Upwardly Global) — 3,431 refugees trained and 1,523 placed in professional roles, with an average starting salary of $65,000 and 85% one-year job retention rate
St. Bartholomew Catholic Church, Chicago — 626 asylum seekers from Venezuela, Colombia, Honduras, and Peru provided safe housing, medical care, legal assistance, and employment support since May 2024
Internationally, Zakat Foundation of America operates health clinics for Sudanese refugees in Chad, emergency relief programs in Lebanon, Libya, Jordan, Sudan, and Ukraine, vocational training centers in Amman and Irbid for Syrian and Palestinian refugees, learning centers for Rohingya children in Bangladesh, and orphan sponsorship programs in Türkiye, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, and Palestine. Between 2022 and 2025, Zakat Foundation of America's food security programs — including Ramadan food packages and Udhiyah meat distribution — reached over 55,000 and 50,000 beneficiaries, respectively, across multiple countries.
A Holistic Model for Refugee Empowerment
Zakat Foundation of America’s approach spans seven interconnected program areas: Refugee Empowerment, Emergency Response, Food Security, Livelihoods, Education, Health and Well-Being, and Orphan Sponsorship. Notable programs include Al-Zahraa University in Türkiye — established in 2015 to provide free higher education entirely in Arabic to Syrian refugee students and staffed by Syrian professors in exile — which graduated approximately 1,000 students before concluding operations in 2021. In Egypt, Zakat Foundation of America has supported over 114 Gaza medical students at Mansoura University, covering tuition and internship costs after the crisis in Gaza left them unable to return home to complete their studies.
The scale and diversity of Zakat Foundation of America’s outreach, from vocational training in Jordan to cancer treatment sponsorship in Amman to job placement in Chicago, demonstrate what holistic refugee empowerment looks like
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