BY targeting the most vulnerable, Muslim Hands strives to develop a better way of living for the thousands that are far less fortunate. Part of their work is to help the elderly who have been left without family or homes. Through Muslim Hands they are homed and clothed.

Orphans are given a new lease of life through the Muslim Hands sponsorship scheme. Through donations they are able to help build themselves a future that would have otherwise been impossible. Money is given to educate - illustrating their belief that planing for the future is just as important as immediate help.

Muslim Hands also works on separate education and training projects that provide an avenue through which many, young and old, can help escape poverty-stricken lives. The skills they learn can be applied to many jobs and thus encourage self-sufficiency. Computer training is provided - meaning they can rise to a new level of learning that usually only wealthy private schools provide. Education and training is seen as a way out of poverty.

Muslim Hands also provides medical help. Through their medical scheme, they provide free eye care and medicine as well as the correction of cleft lips (a physical and social problem for its sufferers). Pakistan can treat the defect, but it is very costly - up to an equivalent of £200,000 for the correction treatment. Muslim Hands co-ordinate and provide extra medicine to a team of plastic surgeons and nurses who travel to Pakistan to treat sufferers.

The bare essentials that many of us take for granted are things of luxury for the people that Muslim Hands reaches out to. Basic essentials such as housing and clean water are recognised as being a scarcity in many of the countries visited by Muslim Hands.

The charity focuses on the most vulnerable group and aims to house the homeless and provide safe drinking water for the thousands that suffer from the unhygienic drinking supply. Instead of travelling miles for a pail of dirty water, they believe people should be able to have access to clean water that does not carry the threat of disease.

Muslim Hands believes that helping the needy is about recognising a world beyond your front door. It is about realising and being grateful for all we have and then helping others to fulfil basic dreams of survival and future developments.

By Zohra Hirji