And it was founded Kuwaiti Zakat House According to a law issued in 1982, it is a public body with an independent budget, subject to the supervision of the Minister of Endowments, and is responsible for collecting, developing, and distributing zakat according to Sharia channels.
Dr. Majid Sulaiman Al-Azmi told Reuters, “Developing and increasing revenues and sources of income is a strategic goal to which we are committed and held accountable… and the last beneficiary is the person in need.”
The state pays the salaries and wages of workers in the Zakat House, building rents, and other expenses, so that zakat revenues are directed exclusively to the needy and the poor.
Al-Azmi said that the Zakat House is “the first government institution in the world concerned with collecting zakat” under state supervision, noting that the experience has been transferred to other countries, including Egypt and Malaysia, and there is coordination to transfer it to Bahrain and the Maldives.
The Zakat House collects funds through 36 branches spread throughout Kuwait, in addition to its website, and receives zakat and alms from the general public, who are its primary supplier, in addition to companies.
Kuwaiti law requires companies to pay one percent of their profits annually as part of zakat, or direct them to public services, where the Ministry of Finance collects them and directs them to their final destinations, including the Zakat House.
Al-Azmi pointed out that zakat is disbursed in full Kuwait“Except the conditional ones,” they go abroad according to the donor’s desire, while the rest of the charity is disbursed at a rate of 90 percent in Kuwait and ten percent outside it.
He added that applications for aid are submitted online through the Zakat House website, but there is a special department whose goal is to search for “impoverished families” who have been struck by financial crises or calamities without resorting to seeking assistance, as it is dealt with in complete confidentiality.
He explained that 54 thousand families benefited from the cash assistance provided by the Zakat House during the past two years, 2022 and 2023, with a total value of 40 million dinars.
About two thousand Kuwaiti families also benefited from good loans, a total of six million dinars during the same period. The Zakat House also provides in-kind assistance, from which 14 thousand families benefited in 2023 alone, amounting to 586 thousand dinars.
Al-Azmi pointed out that the Zakat House recently launched a project for prepaid magnetic cards, and distributed 5,000 of them, to enable beneficiaries to purchase their needs freely from cooperative societies and central markets, and its goal is “to preserve the dignity and privacy of the needy… and to buy (whatever he wants) like the rest of the people.”
He explained that one of the Zakat House’s new projects is also the “I want to learn” project, which was launched in cooperation with an association bearing the same name, and aims to provide direct or distance education opportunities for students who are forced to stay for long periods in hospitals due to incurable diseases.
The Zakat House, which was established to serve the needy inside Kuwait, provides its services to citizens, the category of people of indeterminate nationality (the Bidun), and expatriates. “There is more attention to Kuwaitis, but everyone is treated equally.”
Al-Azmi pointed out that sponsoring orphans is the largest Zakat House project abroad, and the beneficiaries are about 25,000 orphans, and it costs about six million dinars annually, in addition to sponsoring students abroad, which costs about half a million annually.
There are various institutions for charitable work spread in Kuwait, some of which are governmental and some are civil society organizations. These institutions enjoy the state’s sponsorship, attention and oversight, and are also respected by citizens and residents.
Al-Azmi said that charitable work has become a “Kuwaiti industry,” as in 2014 the United Nations honored the late Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, and named him a “leader of humanitarian work,” and the current Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Meshaal Al-Ahmad, was keen to continue this approach.
