For every phone call that gets answered, Yaseen Poonah can’t help but think about the thousands that don’t.

Poonah, founder and president of Naseeha, a GTA-based volunteer helpline for Muslim youth, started the service nearly a decade ago with the aim of giving teens across North America a free and confidential place to call for support.

Staffed with counsellors for only three hours on weekday evenings, the service has long struggled to meet the demand of teens calling from as far away as Hawaii, New Mexico and California to talk and seek spiritual guidance, on issues common to all teens.

But then came the U.S. election campaign.

Over the past year, Naseeha (which means advice in Arabic) saw its call volume increase by more than 300 per cent over 2015, according to Poonah.

“Now it’s a different ball game,” he said. In 2015, Naseeha received more than 4,000 calls. But between January and December of 2016, the service received more than 16,000 calls — many of which went unanswered simply because of a lack of staff, he said.

The concerns of Muslim youth are largely the same as those of all youth, Poonah added: “Depression, mental health, bullying, suicide, LGBT and questioning gender identity are the big ones.”

But there are some culturally specific ones: intergenerational cultural clashes, marital problems and, more often these days, discrimination. “Youth are struggling with the sentiment that they don’t belong and that is manifesting itself in unhealthy behaviours,” he said. Most of the calls Naseeha gets come from the U.S.

“We had a number of mainstream organizations in the U.S. asking us if we had enough resources available in light of a Trump presidency,” Poonah said. “Admittedly, we are a little concerned about what will happen after Inauguration Day.”

The service has been receiving calls not only from youth, but also from their parents about how to deal with the effect of Donald Trump’s presidency, he said. “It’s getting a little bit out of our scope.”

Poonah believes the boost in call numbers could also be due to word of mouth and Google searches. The non-profit, which recently received charitable status, is also listed as a crisis resource by the Toronto District School Board and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health; it most recently collaborated with Kids Help Phone.

There are times when the organization has been approached by authorities, including the RCMP, Poonah said. “In the case of so-called honour killings, local authorities will sometimes ask us if we got calls from the victims,” he said.

“And when it comes down to radicalization, it’s the same. We would report it if it came up.”

On its website, Naseeha states that all calls are confidential, unless there is concern about harm to oneself or someone else, if there is suspected child abuse, or if information is subpoenaed by a court.

Dr. Gursharan Virdee, a researcher at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health who has done work with Muslim and Sikh youth, says that the discreet nature of Naseeha — which operates chat and email services in addition to a phone line — takes away many of the barriers that traditionally exist for these communities to get support.

She said that in her work with youth, many have said they wanted faith and spirituality to be a part of their counselling — something that has been missing when they access mainstream services. “If there is a lot of distance between the therapist and the client, there are some schools of thought that say that therapy might not be as effective as it could be,” she said. So Naseeha fills a large void.

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She said it is possible that the recent spike in calls is due to general adolescent difficulties being compounded by heightened incidence of racism and Islamophobia.

“All of this can affect one’s sense of self, identity and mental health,” she said. It’s also why a youth may call Naseeha, “because they expect there will already be some understanding of this environment on the other side.”

The service accepts calls from anyone, but for youth who identify as Muslim, the religious advice provided by the counsellors is meant to be supportive and comforting, never preachy or proselytizing, Poonah said.

“One of the reasons the youth call us, as opposed to a different phone line, is that they are looking for someone who understands their faith, their religion or cultural context,” he said. “We never talk about heaven or hell, or sin.

“We want to be the first line of contact, without really giving any Islamic message, but we understand that they are calling us to hear that kind of advice gradually,” he said.

In one call log Naseeha shared with the Star (where all identifying information was removed), a female caller talks about relationship problems with her boyfriend, and his abusive behaviour toward her. In another call, a female discusses her confusion about her gender and desire to be a male. There is limited discussion about religion from the counsellors, unless the youth themselves bring it up.

These complex discussions can sometimes go as long as an hour, said Poonah.

“Out of the 16,000 phone calls, we are only answering less than 20 per cent of those phone calls, because of hours of operation or our lines are occupied,” he said, adding that the average call is now 54 minutes, up from 27 minutes the year before.

Currently, the service has about 25 counsellors from around the GTA, between the ages of 18 and 35. The phone lines and live chat are open Monday to Friday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., with two counsellors on duty. In addition to calls, the service gets emails and messages on social media, and senders are then encouraged to call in. Advice is never given over email.

Poonah has big plans for the organization, including increasing its hours of operation, doubling the number of counsellors to 50 and establishing a centralized hub or call centre. Broader plans include counselling in different languages, call centres in different countries and a round-the-clock answering service. But expansion dreams require money. Poonah estimates $8,000 a month could help make some of the items on the wish list become reality.

“We always need money, but it’s never been our focus,” he said, noting that for the past few years the organization has grown with a budget of just a few hundred dollars a month. “But now, the demand is unsustainable. We need to grow.”