Foundation set up to honour first British Muslim head teacher wins Prime Minister’s award
2 May 2014 01:06 PM
A foundation set up in
honour of Nawazish Bokhari is the latest winner of the Prime Minister’s
Big Society Award.
A foundation set up in honour of
Nawazish Bokhari, an inspirational headteacher and campaigner who was the first
British Muslim to run a UK secondary school, is the latest winner of the Prime
Minister’s Big Society Award.
The award comes as Naz Legacy
Foundation launches their new Diversity Programme at the National Portrait
Gallery. School children from various communities will visit the gallery for
the first time and will look in to the lives and experiences of positive role
models from diverse backgrounds who have made an impact in the
UK.
The Naz Legacy Foundation,
founded by Nawazish’s children Hina and Harris Bokhari, aims to continue
his work inspiring young people to achieve their potential, promoting
excellence in education and programmes spearheading positive integration into
society.
The foundation is made up of a
group of educationalists, philanthropists and community leaders and has raised
over £1 million for educational projects benefitting some of the most
deprived communities in the UK, including mentoring over 2,000 young people in
over 100 schools and institutions across the length and breadth of the
UK.
Prime Minister David Cameron
said:
Naz Legacy foundation is doing
fantastic work to ensure young people across the UK are able to fulfil their
potential.
The National Portrait Gallery
programme is yet another example of how the foundation is securing the legacy
of an inspirational teacher, Nawazish Bokhari. I’m delighted to be
recognising the hard work of everyone at the foundation with this Big Society
Award.
Hina Bokhari and Harris Bokhari,
Founders, Naz Legacy Foundation said:
We are delighted to have won a
Big Society Award. Our father was a champion for young people. He believed that
every young person – no matter what their background or circumstances -
deserved the best quality of education available. We are honoured that his
legacy continues in the work of the foundation and we are reminded of this
advice to us as children that ‘it is not what you do in your lifetime
that really matters, it is the legacy you leave behind for the next generations
to follow that makes a difference’.