The news
We are pleased to announce a £5,000 grant award to Sufra, a highly respected frontline charity based in North West London, to support Muslim families and individuals facing acute hardship.
Sufra is a well-established charity dedicated to preventing hunger, fighting poverty and building community. Over the past year alone, Sufra supported 14,335 people, providing more than 48,000 instances of food support to individuals and families in crisis. Alongside food provision, Sufra delivers a comprehensive Advice and Advocacy Service, helping people address the underlying causes of poverty rather than just its symptoms.
A significant proportion of those supported through Sufra’s advice services are asylum seekers and refugees, many of whom face prolonged periods without income while awaiting decisions on their immigration status. Around half of Sufra’s guests are Muslim, with women and children particularly represented — over 40% of beneficiaries are under 18, and 60% are women, most caring for children.
The £5,000 COSARAF grant will be used to replenish Sufra’s Emergency Aid Fund, ensuring continued support for Muslim advice service guests over the next 12 months. This funding comes at a critical time: due to higher-than-expected demand, the majority of Sufra’s emergency aid budget for the current year has already been spent.
The grant is fully ring-fenced in line with COSARAF’s Zakat policy and will support Muslim individuals and families who meet eligibility criteria. It will contribute to a wider emergency aid pot that includes confirmed match funding from the Skipton Building Society Charitable Foundation and anticipated local donations, ensuring both sustainability and fairness across all communities served.
Our funding will help Sufra meet urgent non-food needs that are often overlooked but essential to dignity and stability, including:
- Travel costs for medical, immigration and advice appointments
- Document handling and Home Office application expenses
- Short-term emergency accommodation in tightly controlled circumstances
- Essential household items such as heaters, bedding and phone data top-ups
These interventions play a vital role in ensuring that vulnerable families can access services, maintain health, and navigate complex systems at moments of extreme need.
Through this grant, COSARAF and Sufra will work together to provide targeted, high-impact relief for Muslim families facing crisis, while maintaining robust governance, monitoring and reporting. Sufra will record and track all expenditure through its case management systems and provide end-of-grant reporting with anonymised case studies.
This partnership reflects our ongoing commitment to supporting trusted community organisations that deliver timely, dignified assistance — ensuring Zakat reaches those who need it most, when they need it most.
