Our story

Why Al Anwar was created

Al Anwar Foundation was formed to connect UK donors with trusted education and welfare projects on the ground in Bangladesh. Our work began with support for Anwarul Uloom Madrasa in Sylhet — a school many of our founding trustees grew up around — and has since grown into a broader charity supporting families, food relief, and rural communities across the same region.

We exist because sincere giving deserves a trusted path. Every donation lands where the donor intends it to, and every project we support is one our trustees have visited, vetted, and continue to oversee.

Our mission

To support Islamic education, human welfare, and vulnerable families through transparent giving and sustainable projects. We channel UK donations directly to the work — students, teachers, food, building, emergency relief — and we keep categories of giving (Zakat, Sadaqah, Sadaqah Jariyah, and seasonal appeals) properly separated so donors always know what their gift funds.

Our work

Six areas of work, all funded by UK donations and delivered through our partners in Sylhet.

Our connection to the madrasa

Anwarul Uloom Madrasa is one of our key educational projects — a working Islamic seminary established in 1971 in Monuhorpur, Kulaura, Sylhet. Today it serves approximately 400 students across Hifz, Nurani, and Alimiyyah departments, with boarding facilities, daily meals, and a community masjid attached.

Al Anwar helps support the madrasa's students, teachers, facilities, and ongoing development — but the madrasa is one part of our work, not the whole. We support families and communities across the wider Sylhet region too.

Human welfare focus

Beyond the classroom, much of our work supports deprived families and rural communities in the Sylhet region. UK donors fund:

• Food support — household food parcels for families struggling through hardship
• Winter aid — blankets, fuel, and warm clothing during Bangladesh's cool months
• Ramadan aid — iftar provision and Fitrah distribution before Eid prayer
• Emergency response — rapid support for flood, illness, or sudden family crisis

Every welfare gift is matched to a real family or community need, never to a generic fund.

How donations are managed

Every donation is tracked by cause, campaign, and restriction type. The categories of Islamic giving we handle — Zakat, Sadaqah, Sadaqah Jariyah, Qurbani, Fidya, Kaffarah, and Riba (interest) disposal — are kept categorised in our books and reported separately, so a donor's Zakat never crosses with their voluntary Sadaqah and a restricted project gift only ever funds the project it was given for.

Donor receipts are issued for every transaction, and UK Gift Aid is claimed automatically where you've elected it.

Transparency

Practical commitments that make Al Anwar trustworthy:

• Secure payments — Stripe-secured, Apple Pay / Google Pay supported, no card details ever stored on our servers.
• Donor receipts — emailed for every single donation, with the cause and campaign printed clearly on the receipt.
• Project updates — published regularly so donors see where their gifts have landed.
• Restricted fund tracking — every restricted pound is ledger-tracked against its project and reported to the trustees.
• Clear donation categories — Zakat, Sadaqah, Sadaqah Jariyah, Qurbani, Fitrah, Fidya, Kaffarah, Riba disposal — never co-mingled.

Looking ahead

The work isn't finished. Over the coming years we want to:

• Expand education support to more students across more departments
• Support more families across rural Sylhet with sustained welfare programmes
• Develop new long-term, sustainable Sadaqah Jariyah projects donors can rally around
• Provide clearer reporting — annual impact reports, donor dashboards, and project-level transparency

If you'd like to support our work, the easiest place to start is the donate page. JazakAllahu khairan for being part of this story.