Students across the UK unite to take up Covid-safe fundraising activities for Charity Week 2020

Thousands of students across the UK and overseas are embarking on a week of Covid-safe activities to raise funds for children across the world for international charity Islamic Relief.

Charity Week takes place between 26 October and 1 November this year and involves student Islamic Societies up and down the country donating their time, energy and goodwill to raise money for Islamic Relief.

People will take part in various events including sponsored bungee jumps in London, Birmingham, Manchester, and Glasgow, as well as the ‘2020 Challenge’, in which fundraisers are asked to pick a challenge like walking, running or cycling, apply the number 20 to it and ask for sponsorship.

Charity Week began as an annual volunteer-led campaign launched by a group of students in London back in 2003.  Over the years it has raised over nine million pounds. Funds raised go to emergency and long-term care for children in some of the world’s poorest places and fragile environments, like Gaza, Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan.

‘It’s so inspiring to see volunteers from all over the world make such an effort to fundraise for some of the world’s most vulnerable people – particularly in a year that has been extraordinarily tough for so many of us. ‘A staggering one in five children across the world live in extreme poverty. Sadly, the coronavirus crisis and global economic downturn threatens to increase this figure. But while we have been going through unprecedented hard times ourselves, we must not turn our backs on the world’s poorest. ‘It’s amazing to see so many young people give back. Charity Week is a practical example of what happens when people decide that they will put aside their differences and work together to build a better, more hopeful world.’

For more information and interviews, please contact Jonaid Jilani, Media Manager: or 07872 403534.

Islamic Relief is a faith-inspired, development and humanitarian agency working to transform and save the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in over 40 countries. Islamic Relief assists people according to need and does not discriminate in any way.

Set up in Birmingham in 1984 by a group of volunteers, we have assisted over 117 million people all over the world. We’re saving lives and empowering people to lift themselves out of poverty in over 40 countries – from Bangladesh to Bosnia, Pakistan to Palestine, Kenya to Kosovo.  Islamic Relief is on the ground in some of the world’s most dangerous and difficult places – including Syria and Yemen – strengthening the most marginalised communities to withstand conflict and natural disasters and to build a brighter future. We also support vulnerable people in the UK in partnership with local charities and organisations.

Charity Week is one of the world’s largest volunteer-led Charity campaigns. It started in London in 2003 with one student collecting funds in a shoebox; it has now grown to be an international annual fundraising and engagement event taking place across the globe. With more than £9 million raised in the last 16 years, Charity Week is fast becoming one of Islamic Relief’s most exciting campaigns, with over 5,000 students participating directly in the campaign. Funds raised have assisted orphans and vulnerable children in 28 countries worldwide. This year Charity Week takes place between 26 October and 1 November, though people fundraise before then too.