Celebrating an epic ten years so far, Give A Gift’s milestone annual dinner arrived with a touch of style. Some 200 guests were given a VIP welcome at Aagrah Midpoint on Saturday 1st July, to help mark the charity’s decade of work helping some of the most vulnerable individuals and families living in the UK.
Around 75 percent of all donations made by Britain’s South Asians go to causes overseas. The Muslim communities from the UK are the biggest givers to charity with a whopping £1 billion donated to some of the world’s most poverty/war stricken countries.
With a significant need for funding at local level, in 2013, Give A Gift began their journey into raising awareness of help and support needed by some of the most disadvantaged communities across West Yorkshire; as well as raising funds for hospitals and charities here in the UK.
They began their journey by supporting the Leeds Children’s Heart Surgery Fund (CHSF), which supports the Children’s Heart Unit. Around one in four babies and young children requiring life-saving heart surgery are from South Asian Back ground.
Along with this cause, they raised the profile of Martin House Hospice which provides family-led hospice care free of charge for children and young people with life-limiting illnesses.
To date, Give A Gift, has raised an amazing £200,000 for a number of charities including Martin House Children’s Charity, Leeds CHSF, children’s cancer charity Candlelighters, and Bradford Hospitals.
Guests at the annual dinner heard words of appreciation from CHSF, Martin House and Candlelighters, as well as heart-wrenching stories of vulnerable people in Yorkshire.
Give A Gift’s works has expanded to tirelessly working with disadvantaged communities, providing food parcels, school uniforms, clothes, winter coats and in emergency situations, accommodation.
All this work is only made possible with their team of ever-enthusiastic volunteers ranging from 11-year-olds to pensioners!
Rifhat Malik MBE, from Give A Gift said: “We are so proud to be celebrating or tenth year.
“Of course, none of this would be possible without the incredible support we’ve have from local businesses and individuals. A huge sincere thank you to each and every one of you for entrusting us to carry out the work we do. And, of course, a huge thank you goes out to all of our volunteers that make it possible for us to deliver our projects.”
But, with food poverty and the cost of living crisis one of the most pressing issues currently, the number of individuals and families seeking support and help is unprecedented.
“With levels of poverty in this country higher than ever before, we’re literally sending out hundreds of culturally-appropriate food parcels via our Culture Hub each week,” says Rifhat.
“The Cultural Food Hub complements our existing food supply provision, and with the support from Leeds City Council will ensure that we can help meet the cultural food needs of the different communities we serve.
“Please remember that every penny counts towards helping someone else. Get involved, and don’t hesitate to find out more about what we do.”
Visit: giveagift.org
Give A Gift fundraising breakdown so far
£50,000 – Leeds CHSF plus £5000 of toys/gifts
£50,000 – Martin House Hospice plus £3000 toys/Gifts
£41,000 – Candlelighters plus £5000 toys/ Gifts
£10,782 – Bradford Hospitals charities – donation and toys
£8,000 – Leeds children’s hospitals charities plus £30,000 of funds from Islamic relief for the Eid toy distribution.
Give A Gift’s food distribution delivered since Covid exceeds a whopping £500,000 with help from Leeds city council, DEFRA, Islamic relief, LCAN & Leeds food aid network.
