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Facts on China
-Population: 1.28 billion
-120 million people live on less than $1 a day
-70% of the population is rural
-Over 75% of the rural population lacks adequate sanitation facilities, and 1 in 3 lack access to clean water
-90% of the rural poor live in areas suffering from land degradation
-The western regions are home to around 60% of China's poor

Rural Poverty
China has dramatically reduced poverty levels over the past two decades, but statistics fail to reflect the harsh reality for many people in the country's rural interior. A widening income gap between rural and urban dwellers has left the rural population destitute while city dwellers have become increasingly wealthier. Around 120 million Chinese live on less than a dollar a day. The western and central regions of China remain largely underdeveloped, with poor infrastructure and little access to education and health services.

Minorities and Muslims
Inaccessibility of villages, high levels of illiteracy, and language barriers have impeded government initiatives to address rural poverty. The western regions are home to many of China's minorities. It is estimated that minorities make up as much as 40% of China's poor. Most of these minorities are Muslim. There are at least ten distinct Muslim peoples in China, the largest group of which is the Chinese-speaking Hui.

Islamic Relief in China
Islamic Relief has conducted a feasibility study which highlights the desperate need for humanitarian intervention in China. Short-term priorities included food distribution and disaster relief. In Shaanxi, Islamic Relief was able to respond quickly to the floods of 2002, providing immediate emergency relief, and later rebuilding houses for hundreds of people left homeless by the deluge.

Islamic Relief's Ramadan and Qurbani food distributions have contributed towards alleviating severe food shortages. Each Ramadan food distributions benefit over 6,500 people, while the Qurbani distributions reached a further 4,000. Operating through local partners, Islamic Relief's future work in China will concentrate on the western provinces of Gansu, Xinjiang and Ningxia.

Clean drinking water is essential for life. However, around 18 percent of the world's population is forced to drink dirty, unsafe water.  Click here to read about China's Crisis of Water Article.