Foundation raises awareness of community issues

My column today is talking about a new charity that I am a Trustee of, alongside Jayne Waltho, Alexandra Derby Miss Black Country 2018, Shaz Saleem founder of the charity and chairman Councillor Stephen Waltho MBE.

The Saleem Foundation is a charity set up to raise awareness of issues that affect us as a community and the foundation aims to raise money for charities, raise awareness by providing or assisting in the provision of education, training and healthcare/wellbeing and to assist UK schools in advancing the education of children suffering with mental and/or physical disability.

One of the projects TSF launched on the 1st July 2019 is called United Hands - Because We All Matter. This campaign is to raise awareness for the homeless. We have partnered with Vi Wood founder of Leslie's Care Packages and we are putting out an appeal from July to September asking everyone to donate food, clothes or any items that will support the homeless.

We will distribute all items raised on October 8 in preparation for the National Homeless Day, which is on October 10. TSF has also partnered with Brierley Hill Champion Church, Albion Street and will be hosting a kitchen soup where we are expecting 100 people to attend.

Our partners who have collected items, include West Midlands Police, Smarty Pants Nursery Lye, Crestwood Primary Kingswinford, Poppy Fields Nursery Kingswinford, Red Hill Stourbridge, Tividale Community Primary school and many others, in total 22 organisations joined our campaign with some donating online which was a total of £300.00.

The importance of this project is vital, not only are we uniting organisations together but we are providing those less fortunate within the community, items that many of us take for granted. With the cold and dark winter months quickly approaching it's important the we all play our part in donating to the United Hands project, because we all matter.

United Hands isn't just about raising awareness but also providing support to those who need it, which is where we are asking for your help. When going shopping this week please pop an extra item into your trolley and donate to the United Hands project, it can be something as simple as a packet of pasta for us to take and cook at the kitchen soup ready to cook for the homeless in the community.

Also, our charity is growing and we are looking for volunteers to join our team so if you feel this is something you would like to get involved with please contact us on our Facebook page thesaleemfoundation and don't forget to follow us over on our Instagram page @saleemfoundation