Rebuilding Lives

AMAR helps people in areas of civil disorder, conflict and disruption, rebuilding lives within communities under stress by creating and sustaining professional services in medicine, public health, education and basic need provision.

AMAR is a British charity which has been working since 1991 to deliver services to refugees, internally displaced persons and other under served populations affected by human-caused and natural disasters in Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East and South Asia.

In 2010 AMAR launched an American affiliate, AMAR International Charitable Foundation in the United States of America (AMAR U.S.). AMAR U.S. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit District of Columbia Corporation, which aims to bring the Foundation to an American audience, support existing work and develop new programmes.

AMAR was founded by Baroness Nicholson as the one-off AMAR (Assisting Marsh Arabs and Refugees) Appeal to send much-needed relief to the thousands of Marsh Arabs fleeing persecution and the draining of the southern Iraqi marshlands in the aftermath of the first Gulf War (click here to read Baroness Nicholson's recollections in an interview with the Arab Times). The word 'amar' also translates as 'the builder' in some Arabic dialects, so although the charity has since evolved far beyond this original remit, the AMAR name continues to this day, reminding us of our central mission - 'rebuilding lives'.

During the 1990s in addition to shipments of food and supplies for the refugees, AMAR developed a model using all-local staff to provide primary health care and education. The AMAR model is characterised by:

All-indigenous staff

A focus on women and children

Extensive use of local women volunteers

Local capacity- and institution-building

Transition to self- governance

Adherence to the highest international standards

Working for all in need regardless of faith, background or nationality

It has proven a highly sustainable and cost-effective way to strengthen traumatised communities and has been implemented in several areas of civil disruption in the Middle East and South Asia. AMAR restores the basic structures necessary for a calmer, more optimistic and less conflict-prone future, creating stabiliity and opportunity for populations that have often known only danger and uncertainty.

Today, over half a million people are benefiting from AMAR’s services. Yet too many in these troubled areas are still in desperate need. It is AMAR’s mission to alleviate their suffering and we hope that you will help us to build strong and stable communities, providing a more peaceful future for all.