Charitable work plays a massive part in my life. I was brought up with Islamic principles of charity, which teach that you never lose by giving, on the contrary, your wealth and good fortune are increased when you support those who are less fortunate. Before the life changing event of my daughter Halimah passing away in 2007, I had worked in the charity and public sector at a senior level. From a young age, Halimah (pictured right) would bake cakes to sell at school in aid of various charities and we had made a pact that after graduating from university, we would work together in charity, environmental and social enterprise. Halimah passed away just six weeks after she started university to study Third World Development & International Relations, following which, the decision to establish the Halimah Trust charity was a visceral and instinctual one.

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The Halimah School of Excellence

The first project of the Halimah Trust was a school for orphaned and needy girls in Pakistan. It took 3 years to raise the funds and the school was inaugurated in April 2011. There are around 450 girls from pre-school age, all the way up to sixth form at the school now. By 2017, the Halimah School of Excellence was winning awards such as the British Council's International School's Award. But we couldn't stop there. The pupils were expressing the desire to go on to further education to pursue a wide variety of careers (pupils pictured above) - however there was no college near by that they could attend. Besides, how could girls from orphaned and poor homes possibly attend college and university?

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The Halimah College

The answer was to build a college for them. We laid the foundation stone for the Halimah college in November 2017 and the college was inaugurated in April 2019, exactly 8 years after the opening of the school. To find out more about The Halimah Trust and our projects, visit the website. 

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Period Poverty

The other charity that I Chair is The Gift Wellness Foundation (GWF). It was established in 2019 with the main objective of tackling period poverty i.e. to supply sanitary products to women who cannot afford or access them. I had been donating sanitary pads to women in refugee camps, homeless women, food banks and schools since I started my social enterprise Gift Wellness, but establishing a formal charity felt like the necessary next step in order to develop this work and enable wider participation. 

With a small but passionate board of Trustees we have held period poverty forums and secured funding from a wide variety of sources. In addition to supplying sanitary products to women in war-torn refugee camps such as in Syria, we aim to eliminate period poverty in all of Britain's most deprived communities; as well as work to normalise the conversation around periods. To find out more, donate and get involved in this important cause visit the website periodpoverty.uk.

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