Every 22 seconds, another child becomes an orphan. Most of these kids live in the developing world, far from our view. They are voiceless, isolated, and unsafe. They live in extreme poverty. They face starvation, violence and many will die from preventable diseases. Without intervention, most are fated to continue the cycle of poverty that left them orphaned, to begin with.

An orphan is a child that has lost one or both of their parents. Regardless of their situation or location, these kids grow up extremely disadvantaged. Our Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was an orphan himself. He encouraged his Ummah to protect orphans and take care of them. He heralded that those who stroke orphans’ heads and take care of them will be close to him. Orphans are thus entrusted to the Ummah. It has been seen that there have beenpeople among orphans who have shaped history when held by their hands.

Allah (c.c) clarifies in the sixth verse of Sura ad-Duhaa that He has taken the orphaned prophet into His care, "Did He not find you an orphan and give you protection?". In the eighth verse of the Sura Insan, the believers are described as: "And gladly they feed the poor, the orphans and the prisoners."