Hotline of Hope: Muslim Community Network Provides Culturally Competent and Accessible COVID-19 Support

The coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately affected communities of color in New York City, and this includes the Muslim population. This community, numbering at almost 1 million residents and one of the most diverse faith communities in the city, includes people from West Africa, South and South-East Asia, Latino, African American, and Eastern European nations. A large part of the community are immigrants, work in essential services, and face multiple barriers when it comes to accessing public services, including limited English proficiency, poverty, immigration, and legal status. These are the populations served by the Muslim Community Network’s (MCN) services, and no other program has been as critical as the COVID-19 hotline, which launched on 25 April 2020.

While a good number of pandemic assistance programs sprouted within a short period of time by the city agencies and local mutual aid groups, these services all required proficiency with technology (as community members needed access to a computer to fill out request forms), a luxury which many of our most vulnerable community members, which includes the elderly, disabled, or households with lack of internet, would be unable to complete. Hence, MCN decided to launch a hotline number which immediately garnered the support of 20+ volunteers speaking seven different languages (Arabic, Bengali, French, Soninke, Urdu, Farsi, and Spanish) to help these community members find resources and guidance in a culturally competent and accessible way.

Since the hotline’s launch, we have received over 50 requests for support, whether it be cash-assistance, help in delivering groceries and supplies to the homebound, need for mental health support, help filing for unemployment, and other requests. MCN has fulfilled all these requests and aims to continue running the hotline through the rest of the year to ensure that our community is supported. The hotline’s services are being provided by the network of community based organizations (CBO’s) serving the Muslim community in New York City, such as: Muslim Hunger Van; Zakat Fund of NYC; Turning Point for Women & Children, ICNA Relief, and a dozen other organizations. Volunteers take calls between 10:00-6:00 PM and fill out request forms on behalf of the callers and MCN triages the need. The number (1-888-409-0036) is shared in ethnic media outlets, among public offices, and the CBO networks to reach the widest possible audience.

Amid the crisis and tragedy of losing our loved ones and neighbors, if there is one hope MCN looks forward to coming out of this, it is the strengthening of our networks with the multiple stakeholders involved in running the hotline and serving our communities. To date, we have organized food-giveaways for more than a thousand residents in Brooklyn and the Bronx throughout the holy month of Ramadan; we have served meals to front-line workers at Bellevue Hospital in three difference engagements; we’ve continued to run our monthly Interfaith Soup Kitchen at the Church of Holy Trinity to feed the homeless; and we’ve ran programs for youth to help them relieve stress from the crisis.  From volunteers to the CBO’s working on fulfilling the requests and generous donors, MCN is grateful for being part of the support network that is helping our city’s most vulnerable populations.