We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sara Wada a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sara, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear you experience with and lessons learned from recruiting and team building.

Volunteering first started as a side hobby and soon became a career. I have a huge passion of helping the less fortunate. I believe happiness comes from helping others. I am the National Volunteer Manager at Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) Relief USA.

ICNA Relief USA seeks to alleviate human suffering by providing caring and compassionate service to victims of adversities and survivors of disasters. ICNA Relief USA strives to build healthy communities, strengthen families, and create opportunities for those in despair while maintaining their dignity and advocating for their basic human needs.

Volunteers from across the country help us accomplish our mission every day. We are a Muslim organization and feel it is our religious responsibility to support those in need in our country regardless of their race, religion or other identifying features.

Volunteers are the greatest asset we have at ICNA Relief. People like you, who give their time, energy, and talents to provide help and inspire hope are essential to our ability to deliver quality services. We are committed to creating opportunities for the community to be involved in our work. Our programs would not be able to meet their goals without the help of our volunteers.

At ICNA Relief USA we have six programs:

Back2School:

Back2School is an ICNA Relief program that continues to provide school supplies to underserved families throughout the US. Each child receives a backpack full of essential school supplies to help them achieve a successful school year.

Hunger Prevention:

ICNA Relief’s national Hunger Prevention program provides individuals and families with the fuel to survive and thrive. The various hunger relief initiatives of ICNA Relief are aimed at raising community awareness thereby launching efforts to address this growing epidemic. On average, we feed over 300,000 people every year across the Nation through our services.

Disaster Relief:
Disaster Response Services seeks to alleviate human suffering by providing caring, compassionate, and practical assistance to survivors of natural and manmade disasters in the United States. We strive to accurately represent Islamic values and compassion serving humanity regardless of race, religion, or culture. Under the Islamic principle of helping the unfortunate in our communities through compassion and service, ICNA Relief USA represents Our Nation’s Muslim Response to disasters. ICNA Relief supports all phases of disaster: Preparedness, Response, and Recovery. Including mitigation, advocacy, and community resiliency for the whole community. We assist in training, networking, planning, deployment, long term case management, and rebuilding better and resilient communities. We also advocate for the benefit of those impacted by disasters.

Transitional Housing:

ICNA Relief offers an alternative for homeless women in need of temporary sleeping accommodations. ICNA Relief maintains the dignity of their clients while affording them the opportunity to heal and develop themselves within a nurturing environment. Women are provided with one-on-one support while they transition to permanent stable housing.

Muslim Family Services:

The mission of Muslim Family Services (MFS) is to facilitate the growth of people by using a holistic framework in our services. We envision a community that develops a strong bond of humanity and are actively working on achieving it through education, intervention, and other evidence based practices.

Health services:

Around 28 million Americans do not have health insurance. ICNA Relief is doing its part to combat this problem by offering free basic medical services.

Our free clinics are about connecting with humanity and serving our communities to the best of our ability. We all know that healing is from God and God alone; we are merely an instrument of the Healer.

Our clinics provide medical aid to the uninsured and in the future ICNA Relief envisions opening a hospital as part of its expansion efforts.

Sara, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hi folks! My name is Sara Wada. I grew up in Johns Creek, GA. My motto in life is YOLO! Go out and do what makes you happy. Life is too short, so explore the areas that make you excited. Follow your passion. Working with ICNA Relief, has been a true blessing. It’s the type of work that is fulfilling. My passion is to help others, and with the help of ICNA Relief, I am able to do just that every day. We are able to help change the lives of so many people nationally. In life, there are ups and downs, but what I have learned is if you are patient enough and always strive to do your best, good outcomes will proceed. In the Quran, there is a verse I like to remind myself, “verily with every hardship comes ease” [94:6].

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My first memory of volunteering happens to be working alongside ICNA Relief parent company ICNA conventions. Every Thanksgiving Break there would be a huge conference where scholars all over the United States came to speak in Atlanta, GA. The one mission was to gather the community and provide reminders of who we are and how we can be better individuals. One scholar, Imam Siraj Wahhaj mentioned that our faith goes up and down. When it is at it’s highest level, do something good. Sahih Al-Bukhari mentioned, “Even a smile is charity.” Volunteering has been an impactful part of my life. I seek to also provide volunteer opportunities for our youth. So that they can have a positive impact in their community.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

ICNA Relief has been awarded a 4 star rating by Charity Navigator, Platinum Transparency 2022, Guidestar Exchange Gold participant, and etc.

Contact Info:

• Website: icnarelief.org
• Instagram: instagram.com/icnareliefusa
• Facebook: Facebook locally- facebook.com/icnaga ; Facebook nationally- facebook.com/ICNARelief ; Facebook group- facebook.com/groups/icnareliefgeorgia
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/icna-relief-usa/
• Twitter: twitter.com/icnarelief
• Youtube: YouTube.com/icnarelief
• Other: Please donate generously at icnarelief.org/donate. Any amount is beneficial. People tend to send aid internationally, which is great, but we need to start helping where we live. We need to aid locally first. Volunteer!!! If you would like to volunteer with ICNA Relief, please submit this volunteer form: icnarelief.org/volunteer.