Save A Child – Flagship Programme
Every child deserves more than survival
Across Pakistan, Bangladesh, Somalia, and Gaza, millions of children rely on public hospitals that are overwhelmed, under-resourced, and struggling to deliver the care they need.
Islamic Aid goes beyond emergency relief. For 25 years we have worked inside public children’s healthcare systems – strengthening the hospitals, the people, and the infrastructure that protect children’s lives for generations.
WHAT YOUR GIFT DOES
FIVE DIMENSIONS OF LASTING CHANGE
We don’t just treat children – we strengthen the systems that protect them. Your gift works across five interconnected dimensions of public healthcare, each one essential to lasting change.
SAFE DIGNIFIED INFRASTRUCTURE
Rebuilding and upgrading the physical foundations of care – clean wards, functional equipment, accessible facilities – so that every child who walks through the door is received with dignity.
HYGIENE AND A CLEAN ENVIRONMENT
Restoring the foundational cleanliness and infection control systems that protect health. Safe water in wards. Sanitation that meets international standards. Air quality that does not harm the children it should heal.
CLINICAL CAPABILITY AND LEADERSHIP
Developing the everyday leadership and clinical skills of frontline workers – nurses, junior doctors, support staff – so that every child receives safer, more skilled, more consistent care.
STAFF WELLBEING AND DIGNITY
A nurse who is supported, recognised, and able to care for her own children delivers better care to yours. We invest in the welfare, morale, and dignity of the people inside these systems – because the system is its people.
TRANSPARENCY AND PUBLIC TRUST
Embedding accountability, community feedback, and visible impact reporting – so that these institutions are not only improved, but trusted, defended, and sustained by the communities they serve.
OUR APPROACH
WE WORK INSIDE PUBLIC SYSTEMS, NOT AROUND THEM
We partner with the
hospital
Every programme begins with a formal partnership with the public institution and its leadership – co-designed, co-governed, and integrated into existing structures. No parallel systems. No duplication.
We diagnose and
strengthen
We assess institutions across five dimensions— infrastructure, hygiene, clinical capability, staff welfare, and community trust—then systematically improve each, delivering lasting transformation rather than piecemeal relief.
We verify and
report
Each programme is independently evaluated against global standards like the WHO Health Systems Framework and UN Sustainable Development Goals, ensuring donors receive transparent, evidence-based outcome reports.
Most aid builds something new alongside what already exists. We take a different path – working within existing public hospitals to repair, strengthen, and restore them from the inside.
INDEPENDENT EVALUATION
Our child health system strengthening programme at the world’s second largest children’s hospital was independently evaluated by the University of Punjab against international WHO, SDG, and OECD standards.
9.56/10
Composite validation score
10.0/10
Institutional systems impact
846
structured surveys conducted
19
in-depth interviews
EVIDENCE OF IMPACT
25 YEARS. 7 MILLION CHILDREN. MEASURABLE CHANGE.
Our impact is independently measured and verified. Across 25 years of delivery, healthcare has been our largest and most sustained investment – because healthy children can learn, grow, and build futures.
FROM THE FIELD
A ward rebuilt. A system strengthened. A generation protected.
Since 2021, Islamic Aid has been embedded as a partner inside The Children’s Hospital Lahore – the second largest paediatric hospital in the world, treating 1.3 million children every year. We did not build a new facility alongside it. We entered the system and began to change it from within.
Over four years, the partnership has seen wards upgraded, clean water restored to clinical areas, daycares opened for nursing staff, leadership programmes for frontline workers, and a full Child Cancer Unit rebuilt – opened on Eid day 2026.
Alongside the hospital, Islamic Aid has contributed to the establishment of the world’s first academic institution focused exclusively on child health – helping to train the next generation of paediatric healthcare professionals in Pakistan.
“When hospitals are clean, staff are supported, and systems work – the healing begins before the medicine. That’s the shift we’ve seen.”
– Prof Dr Masood Sadiq, Vice Chancellor, University of Child Health Sciences, Lahore
Before
44%
After
86%
Emergency block patient satisfaction
Before
30%
After
91%
Staff childcare satisfaction
Before
52%
After
89%
Access to safe drinking water in clinical areas
Rs 1 billion (£3 million) contributed to University of Child Health Sciences – the world’s first academic institution dedicated to child health
In partnership with the Government of Punjab
ACTIVE PROGRAMMES
WHERE YOUR GIFT IS AT WORK
Our child health system strengthening programme is active and expanding – from South Asia to East Africa, and in emergency response in Gaza.
ISLAMIC GIVING
Your Zakat, fulfilling its highest purpose
The utilisation of Zakat for public children’s healthcare system strengthening is grounded in established Islamic jurisprudence and supported by scholarly consensus across all four schools of thought.
Three categories of the Quran’s eight designated applications provide direct authority – al-fuqara and al-masakin (the poor and the needy, served directly by every dimension of system strengthening), and fi sabilillah (in the cause of Allah, through the preservation of life, the highest of the five objectives of Islamic law).
Safe Infrastructure – directly established as Zakat-permissible by major contemporary scholars and the International Islamic Fiqh Academy
Hygiene and Cleanliness – grounded in the Islamic ethical imperative of taharah and its direct connection to the preservation of life
Clinical Workforce Development – confirmed through the fi sabilillah category: developing the human capacity to protect life falls within the cause of Allah
Staff Welfare – sustained by the classical principle that the means to a wajib obligation is itself wajib: if caring for the poor is obligatory, sustaining those who do so is equally so
Transparency and Accountability – ensures Zakat delivers genuine and lasting benefit, not transient relief, fulfilling the obligation in its most durable form
All forms of Islamic giving are welcome
Sharia compliance confirmed
A formal Sharia endorsement has been obtained through independent scholars – confirming that the zakat applications within this programme meet the requirements of all major Islamic legal schools. Donors can contribute with confidence that their giving supports both spiritual obligation and lasting public benefit.
A gift to this programme is Sadaqah Jariyah – an ongoing charity. A child treated in a ward your gift helped rebuild, or by a nurse whose skills your gift helped develop, is a benefit that continues long after the donation is made.
OTHER WAYS TO SUPPORT CHILDREN IN NEED
Our country and emergency appeals work alongside our flagship programme – responding to immediate need while we build for the long term.
