{"id":491,"date":"2012-01-16T12:41:52","date_gmt":"2012-01-16T12:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1078051064.test.prositehosting.co.uk\/?p=491"},"modified":"2012-01-16T12:41:52","modified_gmt":"2012-01-16T12:41:52","slug":"birth-of-a-new-charity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/?p=491","title":{"rendered":"Birth of a new charity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\">It all began in 2007 while I was visiting my Mum in Pakistan. On day two, I was woken very early by the <em>azaan<\/em>, call to prayer.\u00a0 I began to think about the local community where most young people aspire to go to England. I wondered whether they could be encouraged to think differently. How about if more of them had better prospects here? What would help to make that happen? Given my own life\u2019s journey, there was only one answer; EDUCATION. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\">So, I began to think about how more young people could be encouraged to succeed in education. I spoke to a few friends and respected elders. They spoke about the \u2018hidden extras\u2019; the costs which act as a barrier for the poor who wish to access, the otherwise, free education. One of them also said, \u201cIf you are planning on doing good, you should not delay\u201d.\u00a0 So, by the end of my week there, I had found a few people who were willing to be on our Committee; our eyes and ears at the grassroots. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\">I went back to the UK as planned and set about talking to people to see how funds could be raised. One thing was sure for me; I had given my word so something would need to be set up. It was just a question of timing. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\">Soon, I had managed to rope in enough people to take part in a sponsored walk with me. Where we would walk was not hard to think of. We decided that we would follow Birmingham\u2019s No 8 bus route known popularly as the Inner Circle. This was because most people from the area to be served by the new charity had settled in and around these neighbourhoods. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\">In the end, 25 friends joined in on this 13 mile walk. Between us we had managed to speak to and get support from nearly 200 of our contacts. We raised nearly \u00a32000 which got the charity off to a brilliant start. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\">Since those days, over 25 young people in and around my birthplace have been enabled to access education. During a recent visit to my Mum\u2019s, I was able to sit in on a Committee meeting to see a few hundred pounds being distributed amongst 17 young people who are the current beneficiaries of the charity. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\">We now have a website. Please take a look: <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.karamfoundation.co.uk\/\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;font-family: Calibri\">www.karamfoundation.co.uk<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\">Karamat Iqbal<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It all began in 2007 while I was visiting my Mum in Pakistan. On day two, I was woken very early by the azaan, call to prayer.\u00a0 I began to think about the local community where most young people aspire to go to England. I wondered whether they could be encouraged to think differently. How &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/?p=491\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Birth of a new charity&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}