We move communities from emergency aid to independence — homes, working businesses and schools that outlast the crisis, built with the people living through it, not for them.
Why we're different
Refugees stuck in limbo for years. Aid arriving in cycles. Food parcels on time, every time — and nothing ever changes. We've seen what that looks like on the ground, and we heard something that stayed with us: "Our men wait in tents because they know another food pack will arrive next month."
Aid alone was building a system of survival, not revival. So we build the other thing: homes families own, businesses that pay their own way, schools that keep teaching long after the appeal ends. Our teams live where they work — neighbours, not visitors.
Based on real household costs, sustained support runs at £150 a month for a family in Afghanistan or Syria and £300 a month in Gaza. Those are the numbers we plan around, not the ones that make a neat appeal.
Rethinking isn’t a slogan. It’s a 1,400-year-old tradition →
Giving funds
Every fund pools donations so we can commit to households for months, not days. Pick a fund, or let our teams direct it where it moves the most.
One donation, spread across urgent relief and lasting development — emergency aid, income generation, education, water, rebuilding, mosques, widows, orphans, livestock and tree planting — allocated where it does the most good.
The path from aid to independence: permanent homes at the Rethink Village, waqf shops that fund business after business, and prosthetics that put people back on their feet.
Your Zakat as a year of stability for one verified family — transferred into their ownership, in full, never co-mingled.
UK taxpayer? Gift Aid adds 25p to every £1 you give, at no cost to you — tick the box when you donate.
Proof, not promises
An entire village built from scratch in northern Syria for families who were living in tents: 76 homes, 12 waqf shops trading at street level, a masjid, and a riding centre. 250+ families rehoused, 70% complete — every home carrying its donor's plaque.
A monthly gift is the difference between aid that visits and recovery that stays.
The next flagship — now fundraising
Rethink Village proved the model in Syria. The Complex takes it further: a self-sustaining, faith-centred community in Afghanistan, inspired by the Madīnah model — and designed explicitly around all five maqāṣid.
A landmark masjid and Islamic school at the heart of the community — dīn and ʿaql.
Dignified housing prioritising widows and orphans — nafs and nasl.
Bakery, barber, tailor, grocery — rental income that sustains the community long-term. Māl.
An equine therapy and riding centre, a community gym, and a Search & Rescue centre anchoring regional disaster readiness.
"It's not just money. I get video updates, I write to my sponsored child, I see them growing. This isn't a faceless donation. I know exactly who I'm helping and it changes everything."A. Khan — Orphan sponsor
Our story
Before Rethink was a charity, we were volunteers on other people's deployments — Lebanon, Syria and beyond. And everywhere we went, we saw the same pattern: a dozen organisations delivering near-identical parcels to the same families, working hard, meaning well, and changing nothing about what next year would look like.
In Burj el-Barajneh camp in Beirut we met a man whose family had been there since the Nakba. Seventy-five years of temporary. Three generations of food parcels, arriving on time, every time. The aid never failed him. It also never finished.
"Our men wait in tents because they know another food pack will arrive next month."
What we heard in the camps — and the moment we understood that charity was unintentionally creating dependency. A system of survival, not revival.
We asked a hard but necessary question: what would it take to stop the cycle? The answer wasn't another parcel. In Syria, mid-conflict, we laid the first brick for a school. People thought we were mad — "why now?" they asked. But we weren't building for now. We were building for what comes after.
That school still stands. It teaches over 300 children, every single day — a beacon of permanence in a place the world had tried to put on hold. That was the moment our ethos was born: start building even when the world is still burning.
Rethink Charity was registered in England & Wales in January 2023 to do this work at full scale. We work in Gaza, Syria and Afghanistan — not as outsiders, but as embedded partners. Our teams live where they work. They know the names, the streets, the daily struggles. We don't do fly-in, fly-out charity, and we don't disappear when the headlines do.
Everything we build points the same way: schools that last for generations, local businesses that generate their own wealth, homes that provide dignity rather than shelter, and skills that end cycles of dependency. Our purpose, in one line: to rethink charity by reviving the spirit of a Madinan society — just, resilient, and led by those who've lived through the struggle.
The thinking
The Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah are the higher objectives of Islamic law — the things it exists to preserve. They are the ethical framework behind every project we run. Approaching old problems in new ways isn't a betrayal of tradition; in Islamic scholarship it has a name — ijtihad — and it's how we honour it.
Rethinking aid from food parcels to permanent infrastructure: saving lives, then improving them.
Schools, teachers, scholarships and youth leadership — the highest-leverage investment a community can get.
Waqf shops and business mentoring: charity models that protect dignity and reduce dependency.
Sponsorship that restores a family's agency — education, healthcare and a future, not a parcel.
Masjids, Qur'an teachers, and one standing question: what's the best outcome for most people, now and later?
The tradition is full of lateral thinkers. Prophet Yusuf (AS) stored grain in the good years — a lateral answer to a life-and-death crisis. ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab (RA) suspended the hadd punishment for theft during famine, adapting the law's application to preserve its justice. And the waqf — the endowment — was itself a lateral invention: ongoing benefit that protects wealth. Our waqf shops are a direct revival of it. Thinking differently to achieve ethical goals is not only Islamic — it's prophetic. When we approach aid this way we aren't being "modern" for its own sake; we are seeking ḥikmah (wisdom), raḥmah (mercy) and maṣlaḥah (public good) in everything we do.
"Wherever there is benefit for the people, there lies the law of Allah."
— Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah
And yes — horses
At the Rethink Village in northern Syria — where more than 250 families have been rehoused and over 30 small businesses launched — recovery includes an equestrian programme that gives young people freedom, mobility and self-respect.
A horse and a saddle. That's mobility. And confidence. Because who says recovery has to look like a queue?
See the workGiving funds
Six funds, each tied to a need our teams meet every week. Donations pool within a fund so support can be committed monthly — give less relief, fund more recovery.
One donation, spread across urgent relief and lasting development — emergency aid, income generation, education, water, rebuilding, mosques, widows, orphans, livestock and tree planting — allocated where it does the most good.
Donors want to help but don’t want to choose between causes — so don’t. One donation is spread across a portfolio of short- and long-term work: emergency relief, income generation, education, water, rebuilding, mosques, widows, orphans, livestock and tree planting. No fixed percentages — allocation is made by our teams on real-time need, which keeps the promise honest and deliverable. This is also where our crisis response lives: when a displacement wave hits or an earthquake strikes, as in Kunar, embedded teams act immediately — food kits, clean water, shelter, medical supplies, community kitchens and the container line, 16 forty-foot containers shipped so far. Sudan today, Gaza ongoing. Urgent relief and lasting development in a single gift — the maqāṣid framework in action.
Maqṣad: preservation of life — nafs
"When crisis hits, every hour matters. Knowing that our donations reach families within days, not months, is what keeps me giving. Rethink doesn't wait for the headlines to act."Anonymous — Monthly donor
Structured, long-term sponsorship: 84 orphans and 31 hifdh students supported monthly, and widows trained, mentored and backed into work and business.
Orphans don't need charity for a day — they need consistency. Sponsorship funds individually assessed education (maths, Arabic, English, Qur'an), healthcare, and a wellbeing programme that includes equine therapy at the Salahudeen Ayubi Riding Centre, sports, judo and trips — 42 children a month in Syria and 42 in Afghanistan, with personalised feedback videos and a donor–child penpal system. Widow sponsorship is empowerment, not dependency: English, IT, First Aid, vocational training, business mentoring and startup support — several widows are now in work or running businesses. 31 hifdh students study at Dar Al-Imān in Afghanistan.
Maqṣad: preservation of lineage — nasl
"It's not just money. I get video updates, I write to my sponsored child, I see them growing. This isn't a faceless donation. I know exactly who I'm helping and it changes everything."A. Khan — Orphan sponsor
The path from aid to independence: permanent homes at the Rethink Village, waqf shops that fund business after business, and prosthetics that put people back on their feet.
Emergency aid keeps people alive. This fund makes aid unnecessary. £3,500 builds a permanent two/three-bedroom home at the Rethink Village in Syria — 250+ families rehoused, the village 70% complete, every home carrying its donor's plaque. £2,500 sets up a waqf shop with training and mentoring; once costs are covered, a small rental fee feeds a waqf pot that funds the next family's business — 30+ livelihoods restored so far. Movement for Hope fits custom prosthetic limbs (£850), wheelchairs (£100) and physiotherapy (£15 a session) for Gazans who lost limbs. And the Afghanistan Rethink Complex — the next flagship — is fundraising now.
Maqṣad: preservation of wealth — māl
"I wanted to support widows in a way that actually changes their lives, not just gets them through the week. Knowing these women are learning skills and starting businesses makes my donation feel like an investment."Anonymous — Regular donor
Schools built where there are none, teachers paid, school packs delivered — and scholarships that keep Gaza's medical students studying.
In parts of Kunar province there is literally nowhere to learn. This fund builds schools (£7,000–£12,000 with classrooms, libraries and teacher housing), renovates madrassahs, delivers school packs, sponsors Qur'an teachers at £1,200 a teacher, and distributes Qur'ans to institutions that can't afford them. It also funds scholarships and stipends for university students in hardship — including Gaza's medical students, so Gaza has doctors tomorrow, not just aid today. Education is the highest-leverage investment a community can get.
Maqṣad: preservation of intellect — ʿaql
"These children had no school, no teachers, nothing. Now they're sitting in a classroom we helped build, learning to read and write. That's not just charity, that's giving an entire generation a future."K. I. — Fundraiser
Wells that serve a village for decades and masjids that anchor a community — classic Sadaqah Jariyah with clear, tangible costs.
Infrastructure outlasts aid cycles. Water wells in Afghanistan start from £600, rising to solar-powered systems; in Gaza, deep wells serve thousands, with hygiene and conservation education built in. Masjid projects run from full restorations to new builds — Masjid al-Jannah in Afghanistan is complete, the Rethink Village masjid is standing, and the Gaza Ramadhan Musallah was built because local people asked for a place to resume Taraweeh — and prayers resumed that same Ramadan. Every build carries a maintenance provision so it keeps working long after completion.
Maqāṣid: preservation of life and religion — nafs & dīn
"One well serves an entire village for years. I can't think of a single donation I've made that will outlast the one I gave to build a water well. It's charity that keeps giving long after you've forgotten about it."Anonymous — Donor
Your Zakat as a year of stability for one verified family — transferred into their ownership, in full, never co-mingled.
Zakat Direct gives your Zakat as a single lump sum large enough to support a verified, Zakat-eligible family for a full year — a direct cash transfer into the family's own ownership (tamleek), in Afghanistan, Gaza and Syria. Held entirely separate, never co-mingled, and given only within the Qur'anic categories, with eligibility confirmed by in-country scholarly boards. Delivery costs are paid from Gift Aid and unrestricted funds, never from the Zakat. The pilot supported 27 families for a full year, distributed during Ramadan 2026 and evidenced on the ground.
Maqṣad: preservation of wealth — māl
"Your Zakat is held entirely separate from other funds, never co-mingled — and goes only to eligible families, in full."Our commitment to every Zakat donor
UK taxpayer? Gift Aid adds 25p to every £1 you give, at no cost to you.
Zakat Direct — powered by Rethink Charity
Zakat Direct gives your Zakat as a single lump sum large enough to support a verified, Zakat-eligible family for a full year — held entirely separate, never co-mingled, and transferred directly into the family's ownership. It has its own page, with our Zakat policy in plain English and a calculator to work out what you owe.
Where we work
Every case here is a household our team has sat with, assessed and backed directly. Names and films are published with permission. The films are from the Zakat Direct pilot, which supported 27 families for a full year — made with the families, English subtitles included.
From the Zakat Direct pilot film — English subtitles.
A war injury eighteen years ago left Mohammed Alaa Khalaf paralysed from the navel down. Living on the fifth floor of his brother's building, he was carried up and down the stairs, and stopped going out except for medical emergencies. Through Zakat Direct, the family received a 15,000-shekel cash grant handed over at home — theirs to direct at surgery, a wheelchair and the foundation of a home-based livelihood — with disability care and a stipend now in place.
From the Zakat Direct pilot film — English subtitles.
Aseel is 24. A blast took one of her legs, damaged the other, her hand and her face. She spent 45 days in hospital, and during that time sent her three-year-old son to his father so he would be safe. Her grant of 15,000 shekels was delivered in full — hers to direct at reconstructive surgery, prosthetic fitting and living costs. Her plan is precise: complete the surgeries, finish prosthetic rehabilitation, bring her son home, and go back to her studies.
From the Zakat Direct pilot film — English subtitles.
Mahmoud was carrying his four-year-old son Ali when a drone dropped an explosive. Ali died in his arms; Mahmoud lost part of his own body. A separate strike fractured his wife Rula's skull, taking her sight and hearing. They live in a tent pitched on the ruins of their six-storey building, her medication alone costing around 120 shekels a week. Their 15,000-shekel grant went where they directed it: her treatment, a hearing aid, and the first steps of a small income project Mahmoud is determined to build.
From the Zakat Direct pilot film — English subtitles.
Safaa lost a leg to amputation and moves on crutches while raising seven children with her husband Ghassan. The family's film shows what the model looks like in practice: support handed over in person, gifted as Zakat from a named donor, for the family to direct at shelter, children's clothing and the baby formula that ongoing support now covers.
Fawzia lives with hemiplegia, which has taken movement down one side of her body. With no household income, there was no children's clothing and none of the basics that make a shelter liveable. Alongside the immediate delivery, Fawzia directed her support at physical therapy to keep her mobility — and the household moved onto a stipend it can plan around.
Walaa's husband Youssef was killed in the war, leaving her with a shelter that had no working kitchen or bathroom. Her support funded the renovation of both, plus bedding and clothing, with her child's medical care and a monthly stipend now standing — so next month doesn't start from zero.
Ne'ma's husband Nidal was killed in the war, leaving her responsible for nine. One son needs surgery, and reaching his appointments is a recurring cost in itself. Her support covers clothing and bedding now, with milk, nappies and her son's transport to treatment carried by the ongoing stipend.
Movement for Hope fits custom prosthetic limbs (£850), wheelchairs (£100) and full physiotherapy for Gazans who lost limbs, through our clinic serving those who fled to Egypt with serious injuries. Community kitchens cook daily meals with local ingredients and local staff. Scholarships keep Gaza's medical students studying. And when local people asked for somewhere to pray Taraweeh again, we built the Ramadhan Musallah — prayers resumed that same Ramadan.
Seven families — the households of Shafiullah Faruq, Gul Ahmad Ismat, Muhammad Ibrahim Shakir, Noorul Haq, Abdul Hadi Azizi and the two Bakht Muhammad families — are supported through Zakat Direct, each verified by the in-country scholarly board and visited by our Kunar team. Every household has a written and photographed report from August 2026 on file; donors backing a specific family receive that family's report, not a newsletter.
A self-sustaining, faith-centred community inspired by the Madīnah model: a landmark masjid and Islamic school at its heart, dignified housing for 20–40 vulnerable families prioritising widows and orphans, an equine therapy and riding centre, a community gym, a commercial strip generating rental income, and a Search & Rescue centre anchoring regional disaster readiness — solar-powered throughout. Rethink Village proved the model in Syria; the Complex takes it further.
In parts of Kunar there is nowhere to learn. Kunar School 1 (£12,000) is in progress and Kunar School 2 (£7,000) is planned — classrooms, libraries and teacher housing included — alongside madrassah renovation, 300 school packs, sponsored Qur'an teachers at £1,200 a teacher, and 31 hifdh students at Dar Al-Imān.
Water wells from £600 up to solar-powered systems, several complete and more in progress. Masjid al-Jannah is built and open; the Nangarhar Masjid is planned. And when the Kunar earthquake struck, our team distributed rapid cash support to affected families within days — the advantage of being resident, not remote.
An entire village built from scratch for families who were living in tent camps: 76 quality two- and three-bedroom homes, 12 income-generating waqf shops, recreation areas and a masjid. Five apartment buildings and the masjid are already open, and more than 250 families have been rehoused. £3,500 builds a home, and every home carries its donor's plaque.
We train families to run profitable shops. Once a shop covers its costs, a small rental fee feeds a designated waqf pot — which funds the next family's business. £2,500 sets up a shop; 30+ livelihoods are running so far. The waqf was Islamic civilisation's own lateral invention, and this is a direct revival of it: an economic ecosystem, not a handout.
A dedicated equestrian centre — trauma therapy through horse-riding, tailored SEN sessions and structured coaching, serving orphans, widows and the wider community. One of the only facilities of its kind in the region. A horse and a saddle: that's mobility, and confidence.
Orphans receive individually assessed education — maths, Arabic, English, Qur'an — plus healthcare and the wellbeing programme, with feedback videos and a penpal connection to their sponsor. Widows train in English, IT, First Aid and vocational skills with business mentoring behind them; several are now employed or running their own businesses. £90 a month covers a widow and up to four children.
Sixteen forty-foot containers packed by UK volunteers and shipped roughly every six weeks — food, clothing, medical equipment and furniture for schools, offices and hospitals, coordinated through our Turkey logistics hub. Documented case studies from the Syria programme — the school renovation, waqf shops, orphan, widow and hifdh case studies and the survivor case of Hiyam Hammouri — are on file and published with permission.
The world's largest displacement crisis: around 14 million people forced from their homes, famine formally declared in multiple areas with more than 20 further areas at risk, and over 21 million people facing acute food insecurity. Healthcare has collapsed across whole regions. International attention has been nowhere near the scale of the crisis — which makes every contribution go further.
Sudan is our newest area of operations and we are actively scaling. Support is delivered through the most-needed allocation of Diversify your Donation — food, water, shelter materials and medical aid, allocated by our teams on real-time need. All eyes on Sudan today, while the ongoing work in Gaza continues.
How a case reaches us
Households reach us through local partners, mosques and community networks. A team member sits with the family, records their circumstances, medical needs and monthly costs, and agrees what would actually change things — with them, not for them.
Where cash is the right answer, the grant is handed over in person and the family decides how to spend it: surgery, a wheelchair, stock for a small business, school fees. Where the need is ongoing, the household moves onto a monthly stipend and our team keeps visiting. Every donor who backs a specific family gets that family's report — not a newsletter.
Nothing on this page was written from a distance.
Zakat Direct — powered by Rethink Charity
Your Zakat as a single transfer large enough to support one verified family for a full year — placed into their own hands and ownership, in Afghanistan, Gaza and Syria.
Why it's different
Rather than spreading Zakat in small one-off amounts across many households, we give one family enough for a whole year — so the support actually changes their situation. Evidence-led and data-forward, on the classical principle that Zakat should enrich the recipient, not merely tide them over.
Cash is transferred into the recipient's ownership (tamleek), to eligible Zakat categories only. It is never used for buildings, wells or services — those are funded from Sadaqah and unrestricted giving.
Each family is assessed and documented; eligibility is confirmed by in-country scholarly boards in Afghanistan, Gaza and Syria. Every distribution is tracked and evidenced with photos and video.
Zakat is held entirely separate, never co-mingled, and tracked separately in the accounts. Delivery, FX and processing costs are paid from Gift Aid and unrestricted funds — never from the Zakat.
Built to show you exactly where your Zakat went. We report to donors annually on how Zakat was used, with a plain "for every £1" breakdown.
"Your Zakat is held entirely separate from other funds, never co-mingled — and goes only to eligible families, in full."
Our commitment to every Zakat donor — and the standard the whole programme is built to.
Our Zakat, in plain English
Zakat is given only within the categories named in the Qur'an (Surah At-Tawbah, 9:60). Rethink currently disburses to five: the poor (al-fuqarā'), the needy (al-masākīn), the debt-burdened (al-ghārimīn), the stranded and displaced (ibn as-sabīl), and — cautiously, with scholarly sign-off — freeing the unlawfully held (ar-riqāb).
Governance is layered: in-country scholarly boards confirm eligibility on the ground, a UK Scholars Board is being established for formal compliance sign-off, and the Board of Trustees retains full legal responsibility. If more Zakat is raised in a cycle than verified families require, the surplus stays ringfenced in the Zakat pool and rolls forward — it never moves to admin or unrestricted funds.
The pilot supported 27 families across Syria, Afghanistan and Gaza for a full year, distributed during Ramadan 2026 and evidenced on the ground — the films on our Where we work page are those families.
1 — Assessed and verified as Zakat-eligible. 2 — The year's support transfers directly into their ownership. 3 — The amount reflects real local household costs. 4 — Delivery runs through vetted local partners. 5 — Every distribution is tracked, evidenced, and delivered with dignity.
Zakat calculator
Add up what you've held for a lunar year, subtract what you owe, and if you're above the nisab threshold your Zakat is 2.5%. Rates below are editable — check today's nisab before you finalise.
This calculator is a guide, not a fatwa — personal circumstances vary (pensions, property bought to sell, missed Zakat from past years). Unsure? Message us on WhatsApp and we'll walk you through it.
Giving levels
A full month for a family in Afghanistan or Syria.
Three months in Afghanistan/Syria — 1.5 in Gaza.
Six months in Afghanistan/Syria — three in Gaza.
A full year for a family in Afghanistan or Syria.
A full year for a family in Gaza. The flagship gift.
Who we are
We are not a charity that operates from behind a desk. From the UK to northern Syria, from Kunar province to the streets of Gaza, the people on this page are the people doing the work. No middlemen, no corporate layers.
Osman founded Rethink after years volunteering on aid deployments in Lebanon, Syria and beyond, where he kept meeting the same problem: a dozen charities delivering the same parcels while nothing changed. He leads Rethink's strategy and its field programmes, owns the Zakat policy behind Zakat Direct, and spends a serious share of the year with the teams in-country — including, occasionally, on horseback at the Village riding centre.
Ibrahim oversees Rethink's programmes across every country we operate in — programme development, delivery, partnerships, and making sure projects are well planned, responsibly delivered and focused on outcomes that last. His work spans education, child sponsorship, livelihoods, infrastructure and community development, working with local partners and field teams from planning through to monitoring and reporting.
Kamrul has been building networks in the Da'wah space since 2017 — community building first, charity sector second. His approach to fundraising is reciprocal rather than transactional: community groups fundraise for Rethink's projects, and in return he upskills them and supports their own services, so they grow alongside the work they're funding.
Khayriyyah runs the day-to-day of Rethink — administration, donor care and organisational support — with a background in IT and teaching behind her. As a revert to Islam, her connection to the charity's work with people affected by conflict and displacement is personal, and it shows in how donors are looked after.
Governance
Yunus brings over fifteen years in international development focused on long-term, dignity-first work: livelihoods training, infrastructure rebuilding and education access for displaced communities across conflict zones since 2010. At Rethink he oversees the Rethink Village project and holds the finance brief — including the segregated Zakat accounting behind Zakat Direct.
Ola is a British Palestinian of Gazan origin. After a BA in Arabic at SOAS and a Masters in Arabic Linguistics in Malaysia specialising in Arabic etymology and its role in tafseer, she founded the Arabic Gems Institute, whose courses let students experience the essence of the Qur'an through its original Arabic. She brings that scholarship — and her family's roots in Gaza — to Rethink's board.
Khizar is a marketing and growth leader with over a decade across fintech and financial services. He built and led the marketing function at an FCA-regulated fintech, helping double its investor base and supporting the business past £100m in property financing, with deep experience in Islamic finance and Muslim consumer markets. At Rethink he brings that discipline to how the charity communicates, measures and grows its supporter base.
Nazim is a secondary school maths teacher of fifteen years and a senior leader, bringing classroom-tested judgement to Rethink's education programmes and the safeguarding and governance experience that comes with senior school leadership. He keeps the board honest about what real classrooms need. Off duty, you'll find him on a padel court.
Our community
Behind every project and every life changed is a network of communities, partners, volunteers and supporters. From grassroots fundraisers running their own campaigns to organisations working with us on the ground, our community is the driving force behind real, lasting change.
Partners bring local knowledge, trusted networks and speed. Whether it's a local organisation distributing aid, a volunteer team packing containers, or a community group fundraising for a school build, these partnerships multiply what every single donation can do.
How we work together
If you're an organisation, community group, mosque, business or individual who wants to back this work, we want to hear from you.
Run an appeal in your community's name, with our teams delivering and reporting from the ground.
Challenges, iftars, sponsored events — we build the page and handle the donor side.
Fund or co-deliver a specific project: a school, a set of waqf shops, a family rehoused.
Every partner gets reporting on how partnership funds were used, plus direct access to our team.
Community groups
Connect with us
Partner, volunteer, fundraise, or just follow the work.
No. 1201676 — England & Wales
11 Chimney Walk, London, E15 2TP
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