- Area:
- London
- Programme:
- Awards for All England
- Release date:
- 9 4 2013
A football charity set up by an ex-Premier League and Fulham star to promote community cohesion has won Lottery backing
Zesh Rahman was the first British South Asian footballer to play in the English Premier League and set up his foundation to help more British Asian youngsters follow in his footsteps. The Zesh Rahman Foundation has since worked with clubs including Crystal Palace, Liverpool and Bolton Wanderers and won backing from a host of big names, including PFA chief Gordon Taylor and former West Ham favourite Luis Boa Morte, for its work in promoting community cohesion.
His Merton-based project, working in Wandsworth and Tooting, has received £10,000 to promote healthy eating and raise the ambitions of disadvantaged youngsters from all backgrounds. The project combines football with educational workshops to improve their skills and interaction and understanding of others.
Zesh’s brother Riz is Project Manager for the charity. He said: “There are around 2,000 school children from a cluster of 14 schools within the Furzedown, Graveney and Tooting Wards who qualify for free school meals and classed as disadvantaged. A lot of the youngsters in the area are not doing any extra-curricular activities in the evenings or on weekends and we have set up a soccer school to motivate them, inspire them, introduce them to new people and make friends.
“We get children from all backgrounds and cultures attending and it's great to see everyone being united from our activities. Children have the opportunity to learn from professional club coaches, get fit, have fun, learn discipline and potentially progress onto junior clubs. We will be going into schools to deliver workshops and raise awareness of the project with coaches who have the added experience of working with professional clubs like Chelsea, Fulham and Crystal Palace. It’s really exciting for the local community and we’re certain the project will leave a lasting legacy."
A total of 98 projects in London are today sharing £822,940 in the latest round of Awards for All grants.
South of the river, it’s been a bumper round for projects in Croydon and Greenwich. The Community Outreach Network is one of the nine Croydon projects celebrating a funding boost and will use their grant of £10,000 to raise breast cancer awareness, and provide support for women living with the disease. The eight projects in Greenwich include Eye4Change, a group that will use £9,976 to run urban digital photography culminating in an exhibition that will focus upon improving community relations.
In Hammersmith and Fulham, Escape Artists have received £9,972 to create an internet-based community TV station where unemployed young people will be able to learn new skills and steer away from crime. Across the capital, Barking, Dagenham & Ilford Methodist Circuit will use their £10,000 award to provide volunteering and work placement opportunities for unemployed people living with disabilities.
Alison Rowe, Big Lottery Fund England Head of Communications, said: ‘London may have experienced cold weather lately but charities and community groups have been feeling the chill for a long time so I’m delighted the Big Lottery Fund can help bring these fantastic projects to life with some much-needed financial support.”
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Notes to Editors
• Big Lottery Fund’s Awards for All programme aims to help improve local communities and the lives of people most in need. You can apply to Awards for All only if you are a community group, not for profit group, Parish or Town Council, health body, or school.
• Grants ranging from £300 to £10,000 are available to fund a specific project or activity.
• The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
• BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Since its inception in 2004 BIG has awarded close to £6bn.
• The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £29 billion has now been raised and more than 383,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.
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