London Islamic School is a faith school in Tower Hamlets. A group of pupils from the school attended the Team London Young Ambassadors Copperbox Youth Summit in October 2016. Inspired by what they heard, the pupils decided to get more involved in their local community and volunteer their time to help others.
The pupils have identified that poverty and homeless is a major problem in Tower Hamlets. They are also concerned about the negative stereotypes around food poverty and using food banks. The young volunteers have decided to plan a six-week campaign. Three of these weeks will focus on food poverty and the later three weeks will focus on those living rough on the streets.
To help them achieve their goals the group have created a social action strategy. In the first week of their campaign, they will learn about the issue. In the second week they will network with local charities and organisations who experts in the area. In the final week they will plan their social action and volunteering plans. This strategy will help them volunteer in their community for the issues they care about.
I was inspired because I learnt that volunteering can help you get jobs easier in the future. I also learnt how education is important because a boy in India was not given the chance to study - this boy was named Iqbal, and he was put in a carpet factory, and every time he made a mistake he was beaten. This made me realise that I was lucky to get [an] education.
By visiting Copper Box, after seeing people who had dedicated their whole life to getting involved in helping the community, made me feel that I should get involved too, and inspired me to get involved more.
Team London Young Ambassadors
Young Ambassadors is the Mayor’s volunteering scheme which helps primary and secondary pupils to start their own volunteering projects. Tens of thousands of young people have improved their school and communities by setting up projects on issues they care about such as food poverty, homelessness, bullying, connecting generations and the environment.
The scheme is made possible thanks to the generous support of Unilever brightFuture.