OIC urges member nations to commemorate Orphans’ Day

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has called on its member states and humanitarian organizations to commemorate Orphans’ Day on Saturday.
The OIC said orphans in disaster and crisis-struck zones continue to be in need of assistance, making an appeal to member states.
“We all know that the right of a child is one of the most sacred rights established by Islam and all other religions,” the Jeddah-based organization said in a statement.
The OIC said that natural disasters, wars and crises have left hundreds of thousands of orphaned children. In the Islamic world, the problem is particularly severe in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Afghanistan, the OIC noted.
It urged member states and other humanitarian organizations to raise awareness about orphans’ issues and needs.
The OIC’s appeal stems from its “desire to honor the orphans, to remind our societies in the Muslim world of the orphans’ hardships and to urge them (to) exert greater efforts in sponsoring them and offering them help.”
The 40th session of the OIC Foreign Ministers Council, held in the Republic of Guinea in 2013, issued a resolution that set the 15th of Ramadan each year as a day dedicated for orphans in the Islamic world.