Homeless Doesn’t Mean Hopeless: ILM Foundation’s Humanitarian Day
Channel: MPAC National
Date: 2020-05-08

People experiencing homelessness are at risk for infection during community spread of COVID-19. As the Covid-19 outbreak continues, the challenges homeless populations face have only gotten more extreme. Shelters are full, or closed, or too fraught with coronavirus risk to consider sleeping in. Those battling homelessness have no access to toilets, much less toilet paper. They’ve been laid off, and there’s nobody on the street so they can’t even panhandle. Common places to find shelter and a bathroom—libraries, gyms, fast food restaurants—are closed. Soup kitchens are closing, out of food, out of workers.

In this webinar, we spoke with Umar Hakim, director of the ILM foundation where he addressed what can be done to alleviate the suffering of some of the most vulnerable populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

A native of Compton, Umar Hakim is a deeply engaged community leader and urban entrepreneur. He serves as the Director of ILM (Intellect Love Mercy) Foundation, the founding principal of INKERIJ, an advisory organization that uses encouragement as a tool in its consulting work to empower local Angelinos, and as the Board Chair of LA Voice. 

Umar is responsible for facilitating ILM’s social-preneurial vision for social change, where change means providing an intuitive educational experience. Umar draws on the key principle of Facilitative Leadership to coordinate ILM’s programming, which include Go Beyond the G.A.M.E, Social Empowerment Educational Development (SEED), and Humanitarian Day, which serves the homeless populations in six California cities every Ramadan. 

Personal development and character building also infuse Umar’s work, from ILM and INKERIJ to engagement with New Ground, AMCLI, and as the Board Chair of LA Voice. He earned a business management degree from the University of Phoenix and a Master’s Degree in Ethical Leadership from Claremont Lincoln. 

----------

Subscribe to MPAC's channel: http://bit.ly/MPACYouTube
Like MPAC on Facebook: http://fb.com/mpacnational
Follow MPAC on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mpac_national
Follow MPAC on Instagram: http://instagram.com/mpac_national
Visit MPAC's website: http://mpac.org 

About the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)
We improve public understanding and policies that impact American Muslims by engaging our government, media, and communities. 

Help us to continue this work by making a donation today: http://mpac.org/give.