Our Stories:
Meet Nizam

“I’ve worked here for almost 8 years, managing various projects, working with people from the local community, mainly older vulnerable people.   

The local area is very deprived and there isn’t a lot for older people to do so The Hamara Centre is a home-from-home for them.  We have various activities they can attend during the week and when they’re here, they ask for help with different things, with their pension, or their utility bills and we do what we can to support them. 

When you do a job like mine, you don’t do it for the money. It’s extremely rewarding and the stories you hear from the people that come in here are very heartwarming and you just want to help people. It can be emotionally quite difficult at times but my job is very worthwhile and I go home feeling like I’ve done something good each day. 

You build relationships with people and they rely on you and you don’t want to let them down. Sometimes it’s hard to switch off at home as well as you’re always thinking of ways to support people. 

There’s one man that comes to us regularly who is very vulnerable and has almost nothing. He is expected to live off £35 a week and he’s solely relying on the food bank here, he has no choice as there is no other solution for him. There are so many others with the same story and the number of people accessing the food bank is just increasing every day.   

So, funding to ensure organisations, like Hamara, are sustainable and stay around to support these people is crucial. That would be the priority for me as things are unlikely to change any time soon.”

Hamara is an ethnic minority Community Organisation in Leeds, addressing the needs of local people. Their work is broad, and includes health promotion, youth activities, older people’s services, education and employment & training programmes. They’ve received a range of funding from Leeds Community Foundation, including grants for children’s holiday activities and an older people’s lunch club. 

If you want to play your part in supporting brilliant local Community Organisations like Hamara, learn how you can support us, or reach out at info@leedscf.org.uk.