Amar International Charitable Foundation in the United States of America

For the last 24 years we have provided professional health, education and human rights services on a sustained and lasting basis, and today we help over 100,000 people each year.

Since June 2014, AMAR teams have been working throughout Iraq to help more than three million internally displaced persons (IDPs) forced from their homes by the ISIS invasion in the north and west. We now build, equip and run purpose-built health clinics for the IDPs, employing local people and using local resources wherever possible.

AMAR's role is to bring public health and education to people who need it in areas where governments and the private sector lack capacity, and to work with local authorities to create structures and systems for the long term, built on a foundation of excellence and experience. 

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Our History

AMAR was founded in 1991 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 . 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 providing thousands of tons of food, clothing and medical supplies for the refugees, AMAR developed a model using all-local staff to provide primary health care and education. The AMAR model is characterized 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. In 1996 AMAR extended its work to Lebanon and in 2003 formally began work inside Iraq. AMAR also responded to the earthquakes in Azad Jammu and Kashmir in Pakistan and Bam in Iran.

Our delivery of service rests on a firm understanding of the communities and countries within which we work, and a methodology of substantive research and survey work to identify those in most need.

AMAR has partnership agreements with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNESCO and UNHCR and is guided by WHO standards in relation to the organization's professional work.